Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 90

W ORLD W AR O NE (1914 - 1918) INCLUDING THOSE WHO DIED LATER AS A RESULT OF THIS WAR

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name ROBERT BURTON PARKER (Capt)

Roll Number 772 Died 17:09:1914

Set / House -

Lef SES 1892

Arrive SES 1890

Where BATTLE OF THE AISNE Serving with 1ST, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE REGIMENT

Age 36

Buried Bourg-on-the-Seine, France Remembered La Ferte, Sous-Jouarre Memorial, The St. Edward’s School Chapel (Wooden Plaque) and The Cloisters Stone Memorial Born 1879 in Cressington Park, Liverpool, he was only at the School a short time before leaving for Wellington College to complete his education. When he left St. Edward’s he was in the Upper IIIrd Form. He joined the Imperial Yeomanry in 1900 and served in the Boer Wars 1900-2, when has a Second Lieutenant with the 9th Battalion he was attached to the Northamptonshire Regiment, fighting mostly in the Transvaal. Mentioned in Dispatches, he was awarded the Queen’s South African Medal with 2 Clasps. Promoted to Captain in 1910, by which time he was married with one child. When war broke out he was a Captain in the 1st Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment, part of the British Expeditionary Force, first out in France. He was killed almost immediately in September 1914 at the First Battle of the Aisne. This followed a charge on a German trench after which ‘Parker went on alone to reconnoitre and was killed at once’. He was very popular with all ranks and the ‘Chronicle’ reported a Sergeant in his Regiment as saying:- ‘we were resting from the Battle of Mons and when I was bowled over by Captain Parker carrying my rifle and haversack. I shall never forget him; he was a brave fellow, absolutely fearless and beloved of his men’. He was the first OSE killed in The Great War.