Sometimes stories and the people behind them just do not go away, instead you get drawn deeper into their lives.
And so it is with James Arthur Parkes and his family.*
I first came across him in a newspaper account which described him as the oldest Manchester man to die in Great War.
He was 63 and had served his country, since at least 1878, first in the 26th Regiment of Foot and ended his career in the Durham Light Infantry.
His time with the Colours had taken him to Scotland and County Durham before returning to Manchester.
His was all the more remarkable a career as he rose through the ranks to become a seargent by 1881, and a Quartermaster a decade later with which came the rank of Captain.
This I suspect was an achievement and one that he was clearly proud of describing himself as “Army Officer, retired Captain of Infantry” in 1901 and “Retired military officer” in 1911.
All of which begs the question of what he was doing in uniform in 1917. He is listed on the Commonwealth War Graves but died in Chorlton and is buried in Southern Cemetery.
His military records for the Great War are missing and so I am not sure whether he returned to regimental duties.
I do know that two of his sons died fighting on the Western Front.
Sergeant David Parkes of the 21st Battalion of the Manchester Regiment was killed on January 12 1917, and his brother Alfred of the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester’s died in a prisoner of war camp in Germany on May 27 1918.
The family had settled in Greenheys by 1901 and sometime between the beginning of 1911 and April of that year moved to Meadowbank in Chorltonville which remained the family home up till the mid 1960s.
Now all of this is important because often the official records go dark during the 20th century, a combination of the 100 year rule on confidentiality and that simple fact that many documents just get lost or thrown away.
What we do have are the usual fragmentary bits and pieces. The family gravestone is there in Southern Cemetery along with the official entry in the Commonwealth War Graves database, the census returns from 1881 onwards and set of probate documents for various members of the family.
But stubbornly other records remain hidden for the time being including the identity of Alan Parkes who was interred in the family plot in 1929.
I rather think he may have been a grandson given that no Alan Parkes shows up on any of the family census returns from 1881 through to 1911.
So as you do I went searching for his possible parents and again drew more blanks although I did discover the wedding of Edward the eldest son to Jessie Wynstanley in 1912 and then like so often the trail ends in a dead end.
So that pretty much is that except to say that sometimes you can be too clever.
I had thought Mr Parkes served in Canada, given that the 1911 census has his wife and some of his children listed as being born in Glasgow and Hamiliton NB which I took to be New Brunswick but appears to have been a mistake.
Earlier census returns record Mrs Parkes and the children as being born in Scotland upon which turns a reversal of James Arthur’s time in Canada which I had confidently described in earlier stories.
Ah well not everything is as you think.
Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop
*James Arthur Parkes, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/James%20Arthur%20Parkes
 |
| On the Western Front, a Daily Mail postcard |
I first came across him in a newspaper account which described him as the oldest Manchester man to die in Great War.
He was 63 and had served his country, since at least 1878, first in the 26th Regiment of Foot and ended his career in the Durham Light Infantry.
His time with the Colours had taken him to Scotland and County Durham before returning to Manchester.
His was all the more remarkable a career as he rose through the ranks to become a seargent by 1881, and a Quartermaster a decade later with which came the rank of Captain.
This I suspect was an achievement and one that he was clearly proud of describing himself as “Army Officer, retired Captain of Infantry” in 1901 and “Retired military officer” in 1911.
 |
| From an army pay book |
His military records for the Great War are missing and so I am not sure whether he returned to regimental duties.
I do know that two of his sons died fighting on the Western Front.
Sergeant David Parkes of the 21st Battalion of the Manchester Regiment was killed on January 12 1917, and his brother Alfred of the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester’s died in a prisoner of war camp in Germany on May 27 1918.
The family had settled in Greenheys by 1901 and sometime between the beginning of 1911 and April of that year moved to Meadowbank in Chorltonville which remained the family home up till the mid 1960s.
Now all of this is important because often the official records go dark during the 20th century, a combination of the 100 year rule on confidentiality and that simple fact that many documents just get lost or thrown away.
What we do have are the usual fragmentary bits and pieces. The family gravestone is there in Southern Cemetery along with the official entry in the Commonwealth War Graves database, the census returns from 1881 onwards and set of probate documents for various members of the family.
 |
| The family grave in Southern Cemetery |
I rather think he may have been a grandson given that no Alan Parkes shows up on any of the family census returns from 1881 through to 1911.
So as you do I went searching for his possible parents and again drew more blanks although I did discover the wedding of Edward the eldest son to Jessie Wynstanley in 1912 and then like so often the trail ends in a dead end.
So that pretty much is that except to say that sometimes you can be too clever.
I had thought Mr Parkes served in Canada, given that the 1911 census has his wife and some of his children listed as being born in Glasgow and Hamiliton NB which I took to be New Brunswick but appears to have been a mistake.
Earlier census returns record Mrs Parkes and the children as being born in Scotland upon which turns a reversal of James Arthur’s time in Canada which I had confidently described in earlier stories.
Ah well not everything is as you think.
Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop
*James Arthur Parkes, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/James%20Arthur%20Parkes
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