Alec Stanley Parker

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
Canadian Infantry
Date of death 
11 April 1916
Age of death 
27
Address 
50 Tanner Street
Barking
Essex
IG11 8QJ
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
Belgium
Biography 

Alec Stanley Parker (as he was known on the school register when he joined Ilford County High School on 1st September 1904) was born on 10th February 1890. His family lived in Tanner Street. His father, Josiah had retired by the time that Stanley was enrolled at school. His previous school had been North Street, Barking.

The Summer 1916 edition of the school magazine, Chronicles, includes a very affectionate and poignant account written by Stanley’s sister. She explained that her brother had left the school in 1906 and went on to serve an apprenticeship with The Cavendish House Co. of Cheltenham. During his four years in Cheltenham, he helped with a local Boys’ Brigade group and took ‘an active part in church work.’  After leaving Cheltenham, he spent a year in London, with the firm of Denham and Goyder, of Wood Green. He also taught at Fisher Street Mission Sunday School at Barking. Then he decided to go to Toronto, Canada in October 1911. He spent three years in Canada, years his sister believed, ‘appear to have been among the happiest years of his life’ according to letters she received.

In Canada, Stanley became a Scoutmaster and was convinced to study for Holy Orders by his local reverend. He had started to study Greek and Latin when the war broke out. His sister explains that then, ‘from purely patriotic motives he decided to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force and returned to England in May 1915.’  In November 1915, he went to France and continued to write descriptively and vividly to his sister. ‘He never complained of hardships and his comrades’ letters sent to my mother state that he faced danger unflinchingly,’ his sister continues.

He met his end in France, when a mine had exploded in proximity to the German trenches and the Canadian troops needed to follow this up with an advance. Stanley volunteered for this dangerous undertaking. His sister concludes that, ‘Many brave men were killed. My brother among them…he lived and died like a brave soldier and a true Christian.’

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.