John Parr (soldier)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tombstone for John Parr in the St. Symphorien Military Cemetery

John Parr (* 1898 in Finchley , United Kingdom ; † August 21, 1914 in Obourg , Belgium ) is considered the first British soldier to be killed in the First World War .

Life

John Parr was born and raised in Finchley. After he finished school, he started working as a caddy . Parr was only 16 years old when the war broke out and was actually too young to serve in the army. It was not uncommon for young men to falsify their age in order to be accepted anyway. Parr also joined the Middlesex regiment .

Parr was used as a scout by bike. He rode his bike ahead of the advancing troops to gather information, which he then reported back to his superiors as quickly as possible. When the war broke out, Parr's unit was shipped to France and then marched to Belgium to a position near Bettignies on a small canal coming from Mons . On August 21, 1914, Parr was sent with another soldier in the direction of Obourg north of Mons to find out where the German troops were. It is believed that they to a cavalry patrol of the German First Army met and that Parr was killed in an ensuing firefight, while his companion withdrew, to make the appropriate message.

The British army withdrew to positions on the Marne a few days later after the battle of Mons , and for a long time they could not recapture the then abandoned area. Accordingly, Parr's fate remained unexplained for a long time.

Parr is on the military cemetery of St. Symphorien east buried by Mons. His tombstone gives the wrong age for him at 20 years old, but that made him officially old enough for military service. In the same cemetery are the graves of George Lawrence Price and George Edwin Ellison , the last Allied soldiers killed in World War I.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Parr, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British soldier
DATE OF BIRTH 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Finchley , UK
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1914
Place of death Obourg , Belgium