| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private Herbert Parnell, aged 18, of the 1st/4th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, died of wounds on 1 Oct 1917. He was buried at the Guemappe British Cemetery at Wancourt, east of the city of Arras, France where his inscription is incorrectly given as “N Parnell”.
Herbert joined the army after his birthday in 1916 and arrived in France in Jan 1917. He would have been involved in the Battle of Arras, especially the 2nd Battle of the Scarpe on the 23 and 24 Apr. The 1st/4th remained in the front line after further action in June. The regimental historian, E Wryall, using the Battalion war diary notes that during the summer and early autumn it was a “quiet” section of the line. Nevertheless, it was then that Herbert was killed, probably from a shell blast. On 13 Oct 1917 the Beverley Guardian, a paper on which his grandfather had worked as a printer’s overseer, contained part of a letter from Herbert’s platoon officer, Second-Lieutenant H Kettle, to his parents, stating that,
“Everything was done by the medical staff to save his life, but unfortunately without avail. He was one of the most brave and soldierly men under my command. Please allow me to express my sympathy in your great loss.”
Herbert was born in Beverley the 18 Sep1897 and baptised at St Mary’s church the 20 Oct 1897, the son of Herbert Parnell, of Hull, head assistant at the Mills and Sowerby wine and spirits business at 29 Saturday Market and Alice Mary Porte, of Hull. They married in 1894 and had five children. The family lived in Vicar Lane, Beverley at the time of Herbert’s birth, later movinf to 27 Walkergate. Herbert attended St Mary’s Boys’ School.
Herbert was posthumously awarded the War and Victory Medals. He is remembered on the Hengate War Memorial and on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |