Bertie James Parsons was born in the summer of 1889, and was the fourth of six children to James and Elizabeth Parsons. James was a quarryman and slate-maker from Somerset, and he and Elizabeth raised their family in the parish of Ashbrittle.
While his older siblings found farm work in this peaceful part of the county, Bertie found employment as a baker’s assistant. This meant a move away from Somerset, and, by the time of the 1911 census, he was apprenticed to a bakery in the Crediton area of Devon.
The following year proved a tragic one for the Parsons family. Bertie’s younger brother, Richard, had found work as a hall boy for an estate in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire. This was to prove a springboard for him, and he landed work for one of the new class of liners ploughing the waters of the Atlantic. Employed as a 2nd Class Steward, he was employed on the RMS Titanic and, like most of the ship’s 900 crew, he perished on that fateful night of 15th April 1912.
Among the large number of souls who perished with the Titanic recently we regret to report that among that number was a young man named Richard Parsons, aged 18, a native of Ashbrittle, and whose relatives still live in the neighbourhood, his father, James Parsons, being an invalid.
The deceased, who a couple of years ago embarked on a seafaring life, was on board the Olympic when it collided with the Hawke, and he left his home about a month ago, and journeyed to Belfast to assist in getting the Titanic ready for her maiden voyage.
He was particularly pleased at being appointed to a post on the largest ship in the world.
Deceased, who was a bright lad and much respected in the village, occupied the position of lift steward on his previous boat, and on the Titanic was a steward in a second-class dining saloon.
He was unable to swim.
Somerset County Gazette: Saturday 27th April 1912
Back in Devon, Bertie was still working as a baker. When war came to Europe, however, he stepped up to play his part. While full service details are not available, it is clear that he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps as a Private. He was attached to the 2nd/1st Wessex Field Ambulance, who were sent to France in January 1916.
Private Parsons saw action – or helped treat the results of it – at some of the key battles on the Western Front: the Somme, Ypres, Cambrai, Givenchy and Festubert. In the autumn of 1917, Bertie returned home to marry Florence Riddaway, a milliner from Bow, Devon, who he had courted while working in nearby Crediton. The couple went on to have a son, Douglas, who was born on 26th May 1918.
It is unclear how long Bertie remained in the army after the Armistice was signed. By the summer of 1920, he was back on British shores, and had fallen ill. He was admitted to hospital in Bath with acute staphlococcic infection and a cerebral embolism. He died in hospital on 13th August 1920, at the age of 31 years old.
The body of Bertie James Parsons was taken back to Ashbrittle for burial. He was laid to rest in the village’s St John the Baptist Churchyard.
Tragedy was to remain close by for the Parson family. Florence was a couple of months pregnant when Bertie died. Bertie Jr was born on 26th March 1921, but both mother and son died during childbirth. They were laid to rest near her family in Devon.
Douglas, just two years old, was now an orphan. There is little information about his life in the aftermath of his parents’ passing, but by the time of the 1939 Register, he was working as a motor mechanic in Wellington, Somerset. He lived on until 1993, passing away in Taunton Deane, at the age of 74.
Death and Service 