Norman Stanley Parker (1886-1917)

1914

Wyndham City Libraries

text

eng

Stanley Parker

2133

Mr J. G. Parker
Father

Unknown

Single

No known grave.
Memorial: Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

No.2133  Private Stanley Parker
Norman Stanley Parker (known as Stanley) was born in Williamstown in 1886 to Thomas Parker and Eliza Anderson.  He had two siblings - Thomas George Parker, who was born at Werribee in 1893, and a sister May who was born in Williamstown in 1887.

Before enlisting in the A.I.F. in 1914, Stanley worked as a labourer.

War Service
Then at the age of 28 and two months, he joined up in Melbourne. His next of kin is listed as his father, Mr. J. G. Parker of Broadford, Victoria.  After being sent to the Broadmeadows Camp, he was appointed to the 6th Battalion, 1st Reinforcements, on 20 December 1914, and given the number No. 1171. (This was changed after he was sent to England, and he was given the number 2133).  He did not have to wait long before he embarked from Melbourne on 22 December 1914, per HMAT Themistocles A32. He embarked under the name of Norman Stanley Henry Parker, No 1171.

After training in Egypt, Private Parker embarked from Alexandria on 5 April 1915 per Galeka, to join the M.E.F. Gallipoli Campaign (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force).  The 6th Infantry Battalion were part of the second wave to land at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.  It was early in the fighting that Private Parker was wounded, and he was admitted to a hospital ship with a gunshot wound to his face.

Stanley was then transferred to the No. 1 General Hospital at Heliopolis (a suburb of Cairo, Egypt) on the 29 April 1915, and the next day to the No 2 General Hospital.  It was at this time that Stanley received a telegram from his father, saying how proud he was of his son. (see below)

On 23 June 1915, Private Parker was admitted to the convalescent home at Helouan, which was about twenty miles up the Nile from Cairo.  He stayed there until 3 July 1915, when he returned to the Dardanelles, per Scotian.  After two month at Anzac, he was admitted to hospital on 5 September 1915 suffering from diarrhoea. He was first treated by the 2nd Field Ambulance, then at the No.1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station, and later in the day he was transferred to the M.O. Maheno.  (This was one of two hospital ships that were operated by the New Zealand Navy.  Its remains are now beached on Fraser Island, Queensland).

The hospital ship took him to Mudros (on the Mediterranean island of Lemnos) where he was transferred to the NILE.  He was then taken on to St. Andrews Hospital on Malta, suffering from typhoid.

The work of the Maheno in treating and evacuating the wounded from Gallipoli, including Private Parker, is described a book titled The War Effort of New Zealand by Lieut.-Colonel J. S. Elliott, N.Z.M.C.

"The Maheno embarked 422 cases from ANZAC on 2nd September, including a large number of cases of dysentery; and all the patients were transferred to the Nile at Mudros. The Maheno departed again on September 7th for Anzac, where about 1,000 patients were attended to including 400 embarked on the ship.  The others had wounds dressed and received medical treatment aboard, and returned again to the beach. Several of the personnel of the ship contracted dysentery, and all were more or less exhausted. The ship returned on the 11th to Mudros and was ordered to Malta, arriving at Valetta, where the patients were disembarked".

Private Parker remained in hospital at Malta between 8 September and 30 September 1915, before he was transferred to England.  There he was admitted to the 5th Southern General Hospital at Portsmouth on 8 October 1915.  Following treatment there, he was moved to Monte Video House to convalescence. 
[A Command Depot had been set up at Monte Video House in Chickerell, two miles outside Weymouth, Dorset. It was for men who were not expected to be fit for duty within six months].

Once he had recuperated, he was sent to Perham Downs Camp on the Salisbury Plains, on 28 June 1916.  Just over a month later, on 3 August 1916, Private Parker was again taken on strength with the 6th Battalion, who were now relocated to France. His service with them would have included fighting near Ypres in Flanders, before returning to the Somme for winter.  In 1917, the battalion participated in the operations that followed-up the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, and then returned to Belgium to join the great offensive launched to the east of Ypres.

On 2 March 1917, Private Parker received a gunshot wound to his right leg.  He was first treated by No. 1 A.D.R.S., and then the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance.  The following day he was treated by the 3rd Australian Clearing Station, and then on the 31st Ambulance Train. They delivered him to the 1st Canadian General Hospital at the Etaples Camp in France.  After two weeks at Etaples, he was repatriated to the 3rd Southern General Hospital at Oxford in England.  After three weeks treatment, Stanley Parker was transferred to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital.  He stayed with them until the 30 April 1917, when he was granted two weeks leave, before reporting to the Training Depot Perham Downs.  On the 7 May 1917, while at the No.1 Command Depot, he was classified as “B1A”.  One week later, he was on his way back to the 1st Australian Divisional Base at Havre Field in Belgium, and he re-joined the 6th Battalion in the field on  7 July 1917.

[Category A was for men who were fit for Active Service;
Category B - men fit for certain kinds of service;
Category C – men fit for service in England;
Category D – temporarily unfit but likely to become fit after treatment
Category E – those who should be discharged.
B1A2 was fit for overseas training camp in three to four weeks.
B1A - fit for light duty only – 4 weeks.]

The Battle of Menin Road took place between 20-25 September 1917.  It was part of the Third Battle of Ypres on the Western Front, undertaken by the British Second Army in an attempt to take sections of the curving ridge, east of Ypres, which the Menin Road crossed.  This action saw the first involvement of Australian units (1st and 2nd Divisions AIF) in the Third Battle of Ypres.  The attack was successful along its entire front, though the advancing troops had to overcome formidable entrenched German defensive positions which included mutually supporting concrete pill-box strongpoints and also resist fierce German counter-attacks.  The two AIF Divisions sustained 5,013 casualties in the action.   

One of the casualties was Private Stanley Parker, who was killed in the field on 21 September 1917. 

He has no known grave, and his name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

A report of his death was published in the local press.
LITTLE RIVER - KILLED IN ACTION.   Saturday, 20th October, was a day of gloom in Little River, when it became known that three of their brave lads, Sergeant E. Connop, and Privates S. Parker and E. Gabrielson, had given their lives for King and country. Private Stanley Parker enlisted in October, 1914, and sailed for Egypt with the first reinforcements, two days before Christmas of that year. He was one of the first to land at Gallipoli, and was wounded on the second day. He returned to duty, but after fighting for some months had to leave again, and was invalided to England. He returned to the firing line in France, and was again wounded and ill, and finally he lost his life on the battlefields of France on 21st September, 1917. He was a great favorite in Little River, and much sympathy is felt for his parents, who reside at Broadford, and for his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Ball, with whom he practically lived from an infant.
Werribee Shire Banner, 25 October 1917, p.2.

Medals & Entitlements:

• 1914/15 Star - issued 30 July 1920
• British War Medal - issued 21 July 1920
• Victory Medal - issued 14 September 1922
• Memorial Scroll and King’s Message - Sent 18 July 1921
• Memorial Plaque sent 27 September 1922

Thomas Charles Parker of Broadford (his Father) was granted £1 per fortnight, as from 17 December, 1917.

Notes
His name is recorded on the Werribee Cenotaph as "PARKER, S."

Trove: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/74827202?searchTerm=parker%20AND%20%22Little%20River%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=Little+River|||anyWords|||notWords|||l-textSearchScope=*ignore*|*ignore*|||fromdd|||frommm|||fromyyyy=1915|||todd|||tomm|||toyyyy=1918|||l-title=238|||l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*|||sortby#pstart7169431

Aust War Mem:
https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1657140/

Nat Archive:
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=11998602

http://www.naa.gov.au/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Maheno

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Effo-t1-body-d7.html

http://weymouthanzacs.moonfruit.com/the-camps/4575540279

http://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/Items/Baverstock/Baverstock%20-%20Australian%20War%20Graves%20-%20Frederick%20Donald%20James%20Kennedy.pdf

http://www.awm.gov.au/units/event_97.asp

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/74827202?searchTerm=parker%20AND%20%22Little%20River%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=Little+River|||anyWords|||notWords|||l-textSearchScope=*ignore*|*ignore*|||fromdd|||frommm|||fromyyyy=1915|||todd|||tomm|||toyyyy=1918|||l-title=238|||l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*|||sortby#pstart7169431

Aust War Mem:
https://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1657140/

Nat Archive:
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=11998602



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1914-15 Star

British War Medal

Victory Medal