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1877 Jun 16. Born New Zealand according to 1911 census & RIC. Son of James Edward & Marion Frances Parker
Educated Weybridge and HMS Britannia
1891 Jan 15. Entered Navy
1893 Mar 15. Commissioned Midshipman
1894 to 1895 Present at taking of Port Arthur and Wei Hei during Chino Japanese War
1898 Jul/Sep Marriage to Dorothy Laborne (nee Popham)
1907 Oct 1. Promoted Lt Commander
1911 census in China & East Indies station on a RN ship. He is single. His parents are in London at 14 Atney Road Putney, Wandsworth, London
1913 Oct 26. married in Kensington to Linda Mary Olivia Davies
1914 Sep 22 Sunk in HMS Aboukir and interned in Holland 4 days. Only 48 of 843 crew on the Aboukir survived.
1914 Oct to 1918 Sep. In command HMS Harrier, Downs and Mediterranean. PARKER James S N/E Lt.Cdr. RN 83P057 Harrier . From his service record.
1917 Feb 24 Engaged with submarine and saved crew and French troops from SS Dorothy. DOROTHY, 3,806grt, defensively-armed, 24 February 1917, 25 miles SE by S ½ S from Pantellaria, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 6 lives lost. Gazetted Actions against enemy Submarines DSO Engaged and sank an Austrian submarine on the 24th February, 1917.
There was only one U-boat involved here - U35. That U35 fired at Harrier with one torpedo and missed. And Harrier engaged it with 2 depth charges, And Harrier believed that it had sunk the U-boat - ie U35 but it did not know that. Quite a number of false claims for submarine sinkings were made because when a sub dives it expels air from its ballast tanks and takes in water. These bubbles together with the sea disturbance were often taken as an indication of a sinking. In some cases, HARRIER's being one, the claims were accepted by the Admiralty.....de la Periere, commander of U 35, went on to be the highest scoring German U-boat commander in the war with over 490,000 tons.
1917 Apr 24. DSO gazetted and French award of Croix de Guerre
1917 May & Jun Salved Transport Kingstonian from Cape Granitola. KINGSTONIAN, 6,564grt, defensively-armed, 29 April 1918, offshore in Carloforte Roadstead, torpedoed by submarine, total wreck, 1 life lost
1918 Sep 15. State of health makes it desirable that he return to England. "Surveyed for duty...for mental observation. "
1919 Jan 17 Fit for Active Service. He then sought a command in Baltic on Minsweepers, but was considered too senior. A request for a Coastguard appointment was also refused. In the end he volunteered for retirement