Harry Frank Parsons was born on the 23rd January 1894 in Angmering, West Sussex. The third of four children, he was the only son to Henry and Annie Parsons. Henry was a garden labourer, who died when his son was just four years old: by the time of the 1901 census, Annie had lost her husband and two of her daughters. She was living with her surviving children in a cottage close to Worthing town centre.
When he completed his schooling, Harry found work with a local fruit nursery. The 1911 census found him and his mum living at 19 Eldon Road, Worthing: his was the only wage coming in.
War broke out in the summer of 1914, and Harry was quick to step up and play his part. He enlisted in the Royal Sussex Regiment on 11th September and, as a Private, was assigned to the 11th Battalion. His service record shows that he was 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall, and weighed 129lbs (58.5kg). He was noted as being a Wesleyan, with dark brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion.
Private Parsons spent the next twelve months on home soil, but in the summer of 1915, he developed tuberculosis. The contagious condition led to his discharge from the army, and he was formally stood down on 14th September 1915, having serves for a year and four days.
At this point, Harry’s trail goes cold. It is likely that he returned home, but his lung condition lingered. He passed away on 28th January 1916, five days after his 22nd birthday.
The body of Harry Frank Parsons was laid to rest in Broadwater Cemetery, to the north of Worthing town centre.
(from ancestry.co.uk)
Annie had now lost three of her children. Her remaining child, daughter Edith, had married a month after her brother’s passing. She would go on to have two children with husband William Hoad, although their oldest, son William Jr, would die when just five years old.
Edith also passed away before her time, dying of tuberculosis and pleurisy in 1941. Annie, who had now outlived her husband and all of her children, lived until the spring of 1949.
Death and Service 