Birth

Enlistment Information

Military Service

Embarkation Information

Military Awards

Death

Biographical Notes

Harold Parkes was born on 27 February 1898 at Washdyke and baptised Anglican (Parks) on 24 April 1898 at St Mary’s, Timaru. He was the youngest son of Thomas James and Adeline (née Nicholls) Parkes. The family was then resident at Washdyke near Timaru.

Thomas and Adeline married in 1892 at Washdyke and had five children, two of the boys dying in infancy. In 1904 Thomas James Parke was charged with having deserted his wife, Adeline Parke, on 5 February 1898 (three weeks before Harold was born). Mrs Parke, however, no longer wished to proceed against her husband. In 1902 Adeline married Charles Henry Horsham, by whom she had seven children. By 1898 the oldest son, Thomas, was at school in Southland where his maternal grandparents were living. Young Harold attended Fernhills and Kennington schools in Southland as Harold Horsham. Grace Horsham, an infant twin half-sister of Harold, died of suffocation in October 1907. The family – parents and seven children – lived in a very humble house in the bush at Kennington near Invercargill.

On 20 May 1918, “another batch of men, composing the 42nd Reinforcements, went north from Invercargill on the first stage of their journey to training camp, troopship, and, if need be, battlefield.” That batch included Harold Parkes of Grassy Creek. His name had been drawn in the ballot in March 1918. He named his sister, Lillian May Parkes, as his next-of-kin. He requested that his sister not be advised of any hospital report.His mother, Mrs Chas Horsham, Salvation Army, Riverton, was also named in 1919, perhaps when Lilian married. Harold was a flaxcutter at Grassy Creek. While his birth and death were registered as Parke, and he lived with that spelling after the war, he served as Harold Parkes. Parke may have been the original spelling of his father’s name.

Draft 296, the “Rimutaka”, was due at Wellington on 27 December 1919, bringing troops home to New Zealand. Among the men was H. Parkes, 80651, of Invercargill. Private Harold Parkes suffered TB of the hip, resulting in 50 per cent disability. As of June 1923 he was at Evelyn Firth Convalescent Home, Auckland, and the authorities were requesting a relative or friend in New Zealand to be recorded as next-of-kin to receive progress reports pertaining tp his health. A communication sent to his sister Miss Lilian M. Parkes had been returned unclaimed. Lilian had married in 1919. Later Harold lived in Wellington, working as a chairmaker, bookbinder and messenger. While a bookbinder, he was drawn in the ballot for World War Two.

His oldest brother, Thomas Franklin Parkes, served with the Royal Machine Gun Corps, while his cousin, Tararua Augustus Wesley Lawson Nicholls, served with the Royal Flying Corps, and cousins, Gordon and Artileur Hoskin, served with the New Zealand Forces, and an uncle, William Sidney Valentine Nicholls, enlisted for service. Another uncle, George Albert Hoskin, had served in the South African War.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [21 November 2020]; NZ BDM Indexes (Department of Internal Affairs) [21 November 2020]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [07 December 2020]; School Admission record [07 December 2020]; Karori Crematorium record (Wellington City Council) [07 December 2020]; St Mary’s Baptism records (Transcriptions held by South Canterbury Branch NZSG) [07 December 2020]; Timaru Herald, 18 November 1904, Southland Times, 26 Oct 1907, 21 May 1918, Mataura Ensign, 26 October 1907, New Zealand Times, 6 December 1919 (Papers Past) [07 & 19 December 2020]

External Links

• Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph record
• Military personnel file
• Other military personnel file

Related Documents

No documents available. 

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.