Second Lieutenant William George John Parker DCM
Tank Corps ‘H’ Battalion 23 Company
Son of William Henry and Eda Jane Carter Parker,
of 28, Bowfell Road., Hammersmith, London.
William was born in Fulham on the 26 August 1894 and worked as a Ticket Sorter for the District Railway in Fulham before WW1 started. His father was a Plumber for the same company. He had one elder sister Ada, and was a nephew of my great grandmother Jessie Harriet Parker.
Serjeant Parker landed in Le Havre, France on the 16 March 1915 with the 47th London Divisional Cyclist Company. Then on the 16 June at Noeux-les-Mines, Pas-de-Calais, he and his commanding officer were wounded by the premature explosion of a Battye Bomb (hand grenade). Two other men died. Due to his recovery actions after this accident, Serjeant W. G. J. Parker was mentioned in dispatches on the 30 November 1915, and then awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous gallantry.
In March 1916, Serjeant Parker was with the 3/18th London Regiment (London Irish Rifles). The 3rd Battalion was a reserve battalion throughout the War, Headquarters in Chelsea. He was commissioned into the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps (which became the Tank Corps) on 30 January 1917. Tanks were deployed in The Battle of Passchendaele also known as the Third Battle of Ypres from July to November 1917.
Following gas wounds received in Flanders, October 1917, Second Lieutenant W. G. J. Parker DCM died at the Tank Corps Depot, Bovington Camp, Dorset of pneumonia and is buried in Fulham Palace Road Cemetery.
Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 March, 1916,
Dispatch Number 1168:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29503/supplement/2708/data.pdf