William Henry PARSONS - Double View School, Cinderford (General)

by HarryBrook , Thursday, June 06, 2013, 19:14 (4189 days ago) @ Jefff

Jefff,
There are many incorrect ranks on the Cinderford War Memorial. For example Pte. Ivor JAYNE, more correctly JAYNES, was an Able Seaman in "Anson" Battalion, the Royal Naval Division who died in the 1918 Battle of the Somme in the Advance to Victory as it was known. I believe the Pte. Wm. Hy. PARSONS on the memorial is Able Seaman William Henry PARSONS lost on the S.S.Cyrene. There is no other recorded local candidate.
He is included on the Laura Morse Scrapbook C.D. but I got my information many years ago by studying the Dean Forest Mercury portfolios at the old Mercury Office in Woodside Street.
The Double View Secondary School WW1 war memorial consisted of a large wooden shield with a silver medallion in the centre depicting scenes of gardening and smallholding, and around the edges of the shield are small individual silver shields, 87 of them from my records, each giving the ex-pupil's name, place where he died, and date (not all accurate!). I understand the funds for the memorial were raised by the post-war pupils raising pigs at the school. When D.V.S.S. closed the memorial was taken to Heywood Community School where it was hung in the reception area. This school has now been re-named Forest E-Act Academy. I do not know, but hope, the memorial is still there, but there did not seem a lot of interest in it when I saw it many years ago. Perhaps the forthcoming centenary of the Great War may spark some interest in it.
In recent years an addendum plaque has been added to the Cinderford town war memorial commemorating James Lewis and Percy Jackson both Gloucestershire Regt. men from Ruspidge and Buckshaft respectively, and for some reason also Pte. Reuben Rayner Taylor, Canadian Expetionary Force who was born in Cinderford (Victoria Street) 1893, but died in TEXAS in 1926.
Interestingly there are three deserters on the town memorial, two convicted (and served jail terms), and one who was declared a deserter but re-enlisted undetected and died in the war. I do not intend to reveal their identities, although one was mentioned in a published work about two years ago.
Harry