Parker, Francis Lindsay
Private
No. PS/3266, Royal Fusiliers, transferred to
No. S/15590, 1st Garrison Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders
Died of disease on Tuesday 25 September 1917 (aged 38)
Buried:
Lahana Military Cemetery, Greece (Grave III. C. 33)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Campbell College Belfast
Itchenor War Memorial Cross, outside St Nicolas Church, West Itchenor, Sussex
BIOGRAPHY
In CWGC records Private Francis Lindsay Parker is described as a son of the late Mr and Mrs Hayes Parker, and husband of Alice Maude Parker, of 91 Woodstock Road, Oxford (in another record, 13 Kingston Road, Oxford). In a school record Francis Lindsay Parker’s father is incorrectly named as Colonel Francis Parker.
Francis Lindsay Parker was born on 12 May 1879 in Barnsley, Yorkshire and he was a son of William Edward Parker and Jane Hayes Parker (formerly Osborne, nee Lindsay).
Jane Hayes Osborne (nee Lindsay) and William Edward Parker were married on 6 November 1876 in Killinchy Presbyterian Church. William Edward Parker, a solicitor from Barnsley, Yorkshire was a son of Edward Parker, a gentleman. His wife, Jane Hayes Osborne (nee Lindsay), had previously been married to Gawn Hamilton Osborne.
Gawn Hamilton Osborne and Jane Hayes (sometimes Hay) Lindsay were married on 3 September 1861 in Rademon Remonstrant Presbyterian Church (Meeting House), Downpatrick. Gawn Hamilton Osborne, a gentleman from Belfast was a son of Samuel Osborne, a farmer. Jane Hay Lindsay, a lady from Derryboye was a daughter of Francis Lindsay, a gentleman farmer.
Gawn Hamilton Osborne died of heart disease on 28 October 1875 at Craigavad and his wife Jane was with him when he died.
William Edward Parker and Jane Hayes Parker (formerly Osborne, nee Lindsay) had two children:
Beatrice Lindsay (born around 1877/1878 in Barnsley, Yorkshire)
Francis Lindsay (born 12 May 1879 in Barnsley, Yorkshire)
In the 1881 census it is recorded that the Parker family lived at 115 Dodworth Road, Barnsley.
Francis was two when his father, Wiliam Edward Parker, died on 11 September 1881.
In the early 1890s, when Francis Lindsay Parker was a pupil at Campbell College Belfast for a year his mother lived in Tudor Park, Holywood.
At the time of the 1901 census Francis Lindsay Parker was in the Army and he and his widowed mother were visiting the Lindsay family in Derryboye, Crossgar.
His mother, Jane Hayes Parker, died on 18 May 1903.
Francis Lindsay Parker and Alice Maude Cornish were married in Westhampnett, Sussex in 1909.
During the Great War, Private Francis Lindsay Parker served with the Seaforth Highlanders, and before that with the Royal Fusiliers (No. 3266).
Private Francis Lindsay Parker was 38 when he died of pneumonia at Salonika on 25 September 1917 and was buried in Lahana Military Cemetery, Greece. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
LIFE’S CROWN WELL WON
His sister, Beatrice Lindsay Parker, and Alfred Francis White, were married on 9 July 1896 in St Peter’s Church of England Church, Hampstead, Middlesex. Alfred James White (aged 27), an engineer from Hampstead was a son of Joseph White, a gentleman. Beatrice Lindsay Parker (aged 18) from Holywood, Co Down was a daughter of William Edward Parker, a gentleman.