Frederick Parris was born in Borstal on 2 May 1888, to his parents, Mark and Isabella. He baptised at St Matthew’s on 1 July of that year. He lived at 24 Sidney Road with his parents.
At the time of the 1911 Census, Frederick was still living at home with his mother, who was then 53, widowed and working as a laundress. Isabella Parris was originally from Whiteparish in Wiltshire. Frederick’s oldest sister, also Isabella, was also living at home, as she had been widowed less than a year into her marriage; his younger brother, Alfred, was unmarried and also living at home. Frederick was working as an carman, whilst Alfred was a labourer at the cement works. The youngest daughter, Lily, was aged 14 and no occupation was recorded for her – she may well have still been in school. Mark Parris was originally from Cooling, and at the time of the 1901 Census, was working as a general labourer.
Unlike his brother, Frederick does not appear to have served as a reservist in the years before the First World War. During the war, Frederick served with the 2nd/4th Battalion of the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment as a private. His regimental number was 201427. The 2nd/4th Battalion was formed in September 1914, and was sent overseas to Sulva Bay and to the Gallipoli Campaign. The Battalion remained there until December 1915, when they were evacuated to Egypt.
Frederick was killed in action in Egypt on 19 September 1918, aged 30. He is buried in the Ramleh War Cemetery, Gaza.
Click here to access details of his grave via the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
References and links:
Local archives and objects:
City of Rochester Roll of Honour
Friends of Medway Archives, De Caville Index
St Matthew’s Roll of Honour
Ancestry.com sources:
Census 1901: Class: RG13; Piece: 726; Folio: 11; Page: 13
Census 1911: Census 1911. Class: RG14; Piece: 3889; Schedule Number: 196
British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO). War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ (Microfilm Copies); (The National Archives Microfilm Publication WO363); Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies; The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.
Military-Genealogy.com, comp. UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.
St Matthew’s Roll of Honour
Research by:
Patricia Allen and Alison Robinson, 2014; with additional research by Kate Bradley, 2016.