Parfitt, Henry James (Henry)
Lance Corporal
No. B/164, 7th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own)
Killed in action on Sunday 20 August 1916 (aged 39)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval Memorial (Pier and Face 16B and 16C)
BIOGRAPHY
In the 29 August 1925 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle there was an Our Heroes – In Memoriam notice for Lance Corporal Henry J. Parfitt from his widow Annabella and their children who were living at 26 Church Street, Newtownards and it contained the verse:
And now he is sleeping his last long sleep,
And his grave I may never see,
But some gentle hand, in a distant land,
May scatter some flowers for me;
And some tender heart may shed a tear
For the wife in anguish sore,
For the life so fair that has ended there,
Away on an alien shore.
A year later, on 21 August 1926, Annabella Parfitt died of oesophageal cancer in Newtownards Hospital (aged 45).
Henry James Parfitt was baptised in Croyden, Surrey on 8 July 1877 and he was a son of Benjamin Daniel (sometimes David) and Charlotte Parfitt (nee Coppin). Benjamin David (Daniel) Parfitt worked as a labourer and a boot and shoemaker, and he and Charlotte Coppin were married on 8 October 1876 in St James’s Church of England Church, Croyden, Surrey. Benjamin Parfitt (aged 28), a widowed labourer from Croyden was a son of James Parfitt, a labourer. Charlotte Coppin (aged 24) from Croyden was a daughter of Joseph Coppin, a greengrocer.
Benjamin Daniel Parfitt had previously been married to Mary Jane Gunning. They were married on 12 October 1872 in Holy Trinity Church of England Church, Wallington, Surrey, and they had one child:
Alice Mary (baptised 11 October 1874; married John James Middleton 14 July 1894 in the Church of England Church of St Matthew, Croyden, and they had three children – Joyce Winifred, Rita Evelyn, and Ronald Frank). In the Great War John James Middleton served with the Royal Army Medical Corps (No.154465).
Benjamin Daniel Parfitt died on 11 June 1929.
Henry James Parfitt (aged 20 years 6 months), a carman from Croyden, Surrey, enlisted on 11 December 1899 in Kingston-on-Thames. He served with the Rifle Brigade (No. 7223). After leaving the Army he worked as a boot maker and repairer.
In 1911 Henry James Parfitt (aged 33), his wife, Annabella (sometimes Annie Bella) Parfitt (aged 24, born in County Antrim, birth registered in Coleraine) and their two children, Charlotte Annie (aged 3) and Benjamin James (aged 1) were living at 40 Endsleigh Road, Southall, London.
The marriage between Henry James Parfitt and Anna Bella Ross was registered in the first quarter of 1907 in Croyden, Surrey. Anna Bella Ross was born on 21 June 1881 in Coleraine, and she was a daughter of the then unmarried Mary Ann Ross; her father was named as ‘James Cairns’.
Henry James and Anna Bella Parfitt had three children:
Charlotte Annie (born on 14 November 1907 in Croyden, Surrey and she married Tom Charleton in Ards on 25 June 1929)
Benjamin James (born on 24 February 1910 in Epsom, Surrey; died and was buried on 16 August 1911)
Henry Daniel (born 3 April 1912)
Henry James Parfitt re-joined the colours in 1914, fought in the Great War and was killed in action on 20 August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.
Lance Corporal Henry James Parfitt (No. B/164) has no known grave, and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France. He was awarded a trio of service medals – the 1914-1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.