Obituary

 

3rd and 4th battalions, the Worcestershire Regiment,
John Herbert Affleck Parker, Gent., to be Second Lieutenant. Dated 6th July, 1896.

THE WORCESTERSHIRE ECHO, SEPTEMBER 25, 1923
LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY
Death of Captain J. H. Affleck Parker
A SON OF THE EMPIRE
Captain John Herbert AffIeck Parker, who, we regret to learn, died in London on September 19, at the age of 49, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery,  was grandson of the late Mr. John Parker, J.P., D.L., of Woodside, Worcester, and second son of Lieutenant-Colonel William Henry Parker, of the Court House, Malvern. His elder brother, Mr. Arthur Paget Parker, is a solicitor of this city. Capt. Parker was educated at Malvern Link School and Repton. In 1902, he succeeded his father as land agent to several estates, including Mr. Greswolde Greswolde-Williams’s Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Herefordshire estates, the Wickhamford estate and others.

He was for some years in the Worcestershire Militia, as lieutenant. and afterwards lived at Knightwick and Lulsley.

He helped to found, and was the first honorary secretary of the North Ledbury Hounds.

He paid several visits to British East Africa, where he was well known and had considerable farming interests. When war broke out in 1914 he carefully considered how he could best serve his country, and came to the conclusion that flying men would be most wanted, and so, at his own expense, he went to the Graham White Aviation School, and in some months passed out with a first class flight certificate and height certificate. He then offered his services as an aviator to the War Office, which they refused to accept on account of his age. Hearing that the defences in British East Africa were in a precarious condition, he sailed for Africa in November, 1915, and on arrival was at once given a voluntary post as an intelligence officer with 40 miles of the colony’s boundary to look after and with some 200 natives under his command. This post he held until such time as the military authorities were prepared to take it over.

He then volunteered and served for some twelve month as one of the few officers of the Nandi Scouts, whose duties were to thoroughly scout the country one day’s march in advance of the main column. Eventually owing to the military organisation becoming more perfect, the  Nandi Scouts were disbanded and he was offered and accepted a commission in the ¾ King’s African Riffles in which he speedily attained a company, which  he commanded until the end of the war, having been several times mentioned in despatches.

After peace was declared he took up an Officers’ Settlement Farm, and in 1921 married Miss Maud porter and leaves one daughter. Unfortunately, owing to the extremely arduous and exposed life he had had under a tropica1 sun, he developed a disease which wastes the muscles, and he was sent home under doctor’s orders in November 1922, but gradually grew worse and Passed quietly away on the 19^th inst.

Mrs. Greswolde-Williams
It may be regarded almost as a coincidence , because of Capt. Parker’s former association with the family, that Mrs. Greswolde-Williams died on Monday at Knightwick,  Kedong, British East Africa, following an operation for appendicitis. Peritonitis set in and, rendered another operation necessary, from which she died.