Pte 50620 Thomas Parker

• Age: 21
• From: Lancaster
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Thursday 18th April 1918
• Commemorated at: Bailleul Cc Ext
  Panel Ref: III.G.19

Thomas Parker was born in Lancaster in the June quarter of 1896 the son of was the son of Alfred Frederick Parker and his wife Eleanor (nee Baxter). His parents married in  1889 in Lancaster.

On the 1901 Census the family are visiting George E. Howard at 31 Gardner Rd, Poulton.  His father Alfred Frederick is aged 35 and described as an Irish linen traveller born in Ipswich,  his mother Eleanor is aged 34 and was born in Morecambe. Thomas is aged 5 and his sister Ada M.  is aged 6 band was born in Lancaster.

On the 1911 Census the family are living at 2 Osborne Road, Poulton. His father, Alfred Frederick, is now a 45 year old dock labourer born in Bury St Edmunds, whilst his mother Eleanor is aged 42. She advised that she had been married for 21 years having had with 3 children one of whom (Eleanor Winifred born in 1891) had sadly died. Her surviving children are listed as; Thomas aged 15  a programme boy, and his sister Ada aged 16 a general servant.

Prior to the war he had been employed on the London and North Western Station (Morecambe Euston Road).

Thomas enlisted in Liverpool and originally served as Private 34489, in the Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. Following a transfer he was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 50620 when he was killed in action on the 18th April 1918, aged 22. He was hit by a shell and died instantly during the German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary entry for the day reveals that 10 Other Ranks were killed during heavy shelling of the area.  

18^th April 1918

No aggressive action on either side. The activity being confined to artillery. The French had come up in great force and  assisted our artillery with the famous “75s”. The Battn came under heavy shell fire at one period. 10 O.R. being killed and 3 wounded.

The weather, which up to this time had been quite good, turned and snow, rain and hail fell.

Thomas was one of the 10 Other Ranks referred to in the diary.

He now rests at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, France.

Bailleul was occupied on 14 October 1914 by the 19th Brigade and the 4th Division. It became an important railhead, air depot and hospital centre, with the 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 53rd, 1st Canadian and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations quartered in it for considerable periods. It was a Corps headquarters until July 1917, when it was severely bombed and shelled, and after the Battle of Bailleul (13-15 April 1918), it fell into German hands and was not retaken until 30 August 1918.

The earliest Commonwealth burials at Bailleul were made at the east end of the communal cemetery and in April 1915, when the space available had been filled, the extension was opened on the east side of the cemetery. The extension was used until April 1918, and again in September, and after the Armistice graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields.

BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION contains 4,403 Commonwealth burials of the First World War; 11 of the graves made in April 1918 were destroyed by shell fire and are represented by special memorials. There are also 17 British burials of the Second World War (all 1940) and 154 German burials from both wars (10 of which are Second World War).

During the Second World War the cemetery suffered major bomb damage that necessitated the replacement of nearly 200 headstones after the war.

Both the Commonwealth plot in the communal cemetery and the extension were designed by Sir Herbert Baker.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to mother Eleanor. 

His mother died in the September quarter of 1924, aged 56.

His father died in September quarter of 1929, aged 62.

Thomas is commemorated on the Morecambe War Memorial. 

We currently have no further information on Thomas Parker, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.