Parkes, Frederick (Fred)
Rifleman
No. 18588, 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles
Killed in action on Monday 14 October 1918
(aged 27 in CWGC records; in 1911 census records he was aged 34 )
Buried:
Dadizeele New British Cemetery, Belgium (Grave II B 14)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Newtownards and District War Memorial
First Newtownards Presbyterian Church
BIOGRAPHY
Frederick Parkes was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and he was a son of James Parkes, a stoker.
Fred moved to Newtownards and, prior to the outbreak of the Great War, he worked as a motor driver for the Ards Transport Company.
Fred and his wife Elizabeth (nee Dalzell) lived at 46 Little Francis Street, Newtownards. Elizabeth was a daughter of James Dalzell, a baker. They were married on 3 June 1914 in Helen’s Bay Presbyterian Church and they had two children:
Freda Cambrai (born 20 November 1917)
Elizabeth (Isabella) McCutcheon (born 6 December 1918, two months after her father died)
Both girls were baptised in First Newtownards Presbyterian Church.
Fred Parkes enlisted in Belfast, he served as a Rifleman with the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles and he was killed in action at Gulleghem on 14 October 1918.
Rifleman Fred Parkes was buried in Dadizeele New British Cemetery, Belgium and there is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
SOMETIME WE’LL UNDERSTAND
After Fred died his widow placed a For King and Country notice in the 16 November 1918 edition of the Newtownards Chronicle.
Rifleman Fred Parkes is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial and in First Newtownards Presbyterian Church.