Harold Parry (13 December 1896 – 6 May 1917) was an English war poet of the First World War. His poetry was published after his death in Flanders.

Life

Parry was born in 1896 in

Bloxwich Bloxwich is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. It is located between the towns of Walsall, Cannock, Willenhall and Brownhills. Early history Bloxwich has its origins at least as early as th ...

(then in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, now in

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

), one of twins; his parents were David Ebenezer Parry, a colliery owner, and wife Sarah. He won a scholarship to Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall, and in 1915 he won an Open History Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford."Remembering Harold Parry – 100 years on"
The Bloxwich Telegraph, 5 May 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2019. In January 1916 while at Oxford he volunteered for army service, and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the

King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army. It officially existed from 1881 to 1968, but its predecessors go back to 1755. In 1968, the regiment was amalgamated with the Somerset and Cornwall ...

. After training at

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated north of Lichfield, south-east of Stafford, nort ...

he transferred to the 17th battalion of the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

. He served at the Somme in France, and in November 1916 moved with his battalion to the

Ypres Salient The Ypres Salient around Ypres in Belgium was the scene of several battles and an extremely important part of the Western front during the First World War. Ypres district Ypres lies at the junction of the Ypres–Comines Canal and the Ieperlee. ...

in Flanders. He was killed on 6 May 1917, by shellfire on the

Yser Canal The Ieperlee (or ''Ypres-Ijzer Canal'') is a canalized river that rises in Heuvelland in the Belgian province of West Flanders and flows via the city of Ypres (Ieper) into the Yser at Fort Knokke. The river is long. Its name is derived from ''ie ...

section.World War One Cemeteries in Belgium - V Directory: Vlamertinghe Military Cemetery
World War I War Graves. Retrieved 5 January 2019. He had written poetry before the war, and his experiences at the Somme and in Flanders led to his returning to poetry. After his death, ''In Memoriam: Harold Parry'' was published, letters and poems of Parry compiled by

Geoffrey Dennis Geoffrey Pomeroy Dennis (20 January 1892 – 15 May 1963) was an English diplomat and writer who won the Hawthornden Prize in 1930 for ''The End of the World''. His ''Bloody Mary's'' (1934) is an autobiographical account of a young schoolboy i ...

. Some of his poems were published in the anthology ''Songs from the Heart of England'' (1920), edited by Alfred Moss and with a foreword by

Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) a ...

. Parry is buried in , in the village of Vlamertinge in

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

, Belgium. The headstone bears the inscription "Death is the Gate To the High Road of Life And Love is the Way (Harold Parry)".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, Harold 1896 births 1917 deaths People from Bloxwich British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in World War I English World War I poets 20th-century English poets King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry officers King's Royal Rifle Corps officers Military personnel from the West Midlands (county)