Pte 49556 Frank Parry

He was baptised in St. Peter’s Liverpool on 11th October 1896.

 

His eldest brother Edmund died at age 5 in 1899. 

 

In 1901 the family is living at 9 Queen Anne Street, Islington. His father is a butcher, Joseph is 6, Frank 4, William 2,  and Alice 9 months.  Also living with them is niece Prudence Allmark, 10, and a boarder.

 

Sadly, the family suffered the loss of two more children when William died aged 6 in January 1905, and Albert in August the same year, age 14 months. All three children were buried in public graves.

 

By 1911 the family, with four surviving children, are at 43 Plumpton Street,  His father, 42, is a butcher, his mother is 38, Joseph is 16, a ship building labourer, Frank is 14, an apprentice printer, Alice is 10 and James 8.  Also in the household is their niece Prudence Allmark, 20, and two lodgers. 

 

Another child, Mary, was born in 1913.

 

Frank enlisted in Liverpool in the 1/5th Bn, King’s Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Rifles) as Rifleman 1958. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Frank served for three years, enlisting in the spring of 1915, when he would have been 18 years old.  A 1914-15 medal roll has not been found, suggesting that perhaps he was not sent overseas until 1916.

 

His mother died in November 1916 at the age of 44.

 

At some point Frank was transferred to the 1/8th Battalion King's Liverpool Regiment and later posted to 20th (Pals) Bn K.L.R. as Private 49556 and then onto the 17th Bn K.L.R., possibly after recovering from his wounds, or when the 20th Bn was disbanded in February 1918.He was admitted to hospital on 02nd August 1917 for treatment to wounds sustained on his right thigh. He was also treated at a Casualty Clearing Station for the effects from a Gas shell in January 1918.

 

He was killed in action on 23rd March 1918, aged 21, during the rearguard actions to repel the great German Spring Offensive.

The Battalion diary gives an insight into the events of the day:

23^rd March

Battalion HQ established in position near North Bridge. Battalion in defensive positions N. of HAM

At 6.30 am our troops began to retire through the town and gave information that the enemy had broken through on their flanks and at 7am the bridge north of HAM was blown up. Slow retirement made through the town, the enemy having apparently entered from the South Eastern end and being well inside the town. At 7.30am the South Bridge was also blown up. Morning very misty and difficult to distinguish our troops from the enemy.

8.30am In conjunction with the 18^th Bn KLR position established N.E. of VERLAINES. During the morning our troops advanced and established a position on the crest of hill S.W. of HAM in spite of heavy machine gun fire. Two enemy M.G.’s captured and enemy aeroplane which had been flying low over our positions was brought down by rifle fire. Hostile machine guns and enemy aeroplanes very active, also enemy artillery in and S. of VERLAINES.

Battn H.Q. in sunken road abt 200 yards N.E.of VERLAINES. About 12 noon details of 61^st Division passed through our position occupied by Bn. H.Q. under orders to capture VERLAINES. They went forward to positions occupied by our troops and dug in on the left of our position. Their positions were reconnoitred and found to be very unsatisfactory, and it was arranged that he should thin out and deploy his troops more to the left, ours being extended to keep joined up with him.

Frank's body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as his name is recorded on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.

 

His father remarried in August 1918.

 

His father Joseph received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £17.  The pension card shows J. Parry, “guardian”, 43 Plumpton Street, but the amount awarded not specified, if any.  Another pension card shows claimant E. Forster (sister), 19 Linnet Lane, as guardian, pension refused, but later 3/- a week was awarded to his sister until 1929.  

 

In 1939 his father, 72, a retired slaughter house butcher, is living at 51 Guilford Street with second wife Jessie, son James, 37, and relative Robert Hebron, 12.

 

His father lived through the Second World War and having lost four sons and the mother of his children, died in 1949 aged 81.  He was buried with his first wife, Mary. 

 

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