Harry Stanley Parsons

Story:
Harry Stanley Parsons was born at Westbury, Wiltshire, on 21st April 1899 and baptised there at All Saints Church on 30th April 1899, the son of John Parsons and Elizabeth Harriet Parsons (née Pike).  He lived his early life in Frog Lane, Motcombe, Shaftesbury, and later Foots Hill, Cann, Shaftesbury, Dorset.   He enlisted with the Somerset Light Infantry as a Private (Service No. 40426) (per the Absent Voters List 1918).   He was posted to the 7th Battalion and served in France and Flanders and on his discharge he was awarded the Victory and British War medals.   The 1921 Census shows him living at The Firs, Melbury Abbas, Shaftesbury, with his parents working as a Roadman for the Shaftesbury Rural District Council. (The Census also shows the parents were fostering two children from the C of E Waifs and Strays Society.) He married Evelyn Kate Wareham at Motcombe, Dorset, on 11 Jan 1927. Regrettably Evelyn died in 1937 and by the 1939 Register Harry was living at Milkwell, Donhead St. Andrew, Wiltshire, working as a Gardener and Chauffeur. (His niece, Jessie Parsons, was keeping house for him).   His death was recorded in the North Dorset Registry area in 1983.  His brothers, Charles Douglas Parsons and William John Parsons, also served in the conflict.