Education & Career :

Horticulturist (1913).

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

FAMILY - MIKE PARSONS. - "Cecil Braithwaite Parsons, Henry and Lucy’s third child, moved to South Africa as a young man and lived at Elsenburg near Stellenbosch. Upon the outbreak of war he joined the South African Infantry in which he was commissioned as a lieutenant. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme on the 16th of July 1916. A newspaper report of his death read “Lieut. Parsons, who was a fine, stalwart officer, gallantly led an attack on a German trench and was the first to sprint over the parapet. He was later found grasping his revolver, with the German officer in charge of the trench also lying dead a short distance away. Lieut. Parsons, previous to going to France, served throughout the German South-west African campaign.

At the end of the Great War Maurice and Beatrice paid for a stained-glass window in the church in Misterton in thanksgiving for the safe return of their son and in remembrance of their four nephews who were killed in France in the War of 1914-18. The names of the four nephews are given in panels in the design of this window as: Harry Maurice Donne Parsons, Cecil Braithwaite Parsons, Mervin Merefield Parsons, and Hubert Merefield Parsons."

Masonic :

Record of the Lodge at the United Grand Lodge of England shows "Killed in Action July 1916."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley