PARKER, William Delaney
| Service Number: | 3686 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 June 1917 |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 50th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Parkside, South Australia, Australia, 1891 |
| Home Town: | Mount Barker, Adelaide Hills, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, Villers-Bretonneux, France, 25 April 1918 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial Villers-Bretonneux, Departement de la Somme, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Adelaide National War Memorial, Adelaide The 50th Battalion Commemorative Cross, Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Brinkley WW1 Honour Roll, Mount Barker Soldiers' Memorial Hospital Roll of Honor, Mount Barker War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 16 Jun 1917: | Enlisted Australian Army (Post WW2), Private, 3686, 50th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug 1917: | Involvement Private, 3686, 50th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '19' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Themistocles embarkation_ship_number: A32 public_note: '' | |
| 4 Aug 1917: | Embarked Private, 3686, 50th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Themistocles, Melbourne |
Research 2021
The best information I can find about this person is that the most likely candidate would be a William Delaney PARKER born to Amelia PARKER at Parkside on 17/9/1898. His father was not named on his birth certificate but “Delaney” may be a clue to who he was.
The SAGHS death records have the same individual dying in France in 1918, aged nineteen, and giving his residence as Mount Barker.
If this person is one and the same as the WD Parker on the Brinkley roll of honour, there may be several reasons for his residence being listed as Mt Barker, the main ones being that:
• A Miss McFarlane (friend) from Mt Barker is listed as next of kin on his military records (Ancestry).
• The enlistee’s last residential address is not mentioned as was normal during these times.
His occupation was stated as “labourer”. He may have been boarding in the Brinkley area before enlisting and working as a farm labourer. Although there was a Parker family living in the Brinkley area, this was during the second half of the 20th century.
A second possibility was that the “Miss McFarlane” (Christina Margaret McFarlane b. 1869) may be connected to the McFarlane family of Brinkley Station near Wellington. Thus “Brinkley Station” has been mistranslated as” Brinkley”. WD Parker appears on the Mt Barker Honour roll at the SMH.
However, on pursuing various family trees, there is no apparent connection between the Brinkley Station McFarlanes, and Miss CM McFarlane, even though there were also pastoralists by the same name in the Mt Barker area. Christina’s father, Hugh, died in Mt Barker in 1919. As next of kin, Christina also applied for William’s war annuity, perhaps suggesting that she wasn’t from a wealthy family.
I can also confirm that local woman and historian, Mrs Ruth Pearson has told me that she knows nothing of WD Parker’s background.
There is mention of a will on his military records, and also the SAGHS database.
There is a newspaper article dated 7/6/1918 (Mt Barker Courier) stating that he worked for the Paltridge's Tannery at the time of his enlistment.
Submitted 4 November 2023 by Wanda Hopkins
Biography contributed by Maddison SWAN
Next of Kin: Friend, Miss McFarlane, Mount Barker, South Australia
Medals Awarded: British war Medal and Victory Medal.
Religion: Church of England.
Biography contributed by Faithe Jones
William Delainy Parker was born in Gawler SA, mother Amelia Parker and as with his siblings he was adopted/given away at birth. None of his siblings knew they of him & he did not know of them.
Biography contributed by ROBERT BURPEE
3686 WILLIAM DELANEY PARKER
My great uncle, 3686 William Delaney Parker, Private, 10/50th Battalion, B Company Mitcham (Rifles), disembarked Glasgow 2/10/17, killed in action 25/4/1918 near Villers-Bretonneux. Awarded the 14-18 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His place of burial is stated as unknown, however on his service and movement records it gives hand written coordinates for his field burial. The identification of his remains seems to have been somehow lost, however based upon my research I strongly believe he lays at rest in a mass grave for unknown solders from the 50th Battalion in the Adelaide cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux.
Until about 10 years ago I did not know of William, who is my Grandfathers older brother, S93 Frank Arthur Parker commonly known as Brownsea, (his adopted mother’s name) Staff Sergeant, 5th Australian Movement Control, CMF, awarded War Medal & Australian Service Medal.
Like his older brother William Delaney, Frank Arthur was adopted at birth and lived his life believing his mother had died during his birth, that he had no siblings and that his father was dead. However Frank had a better out come than poor William as his adopted mother Louisa Brownsea, the attending midwife at his birth, gave him a loving and stable childhood. So much so that he went by the name Brownsea as he said she was a true mother to him in every way, even though he knew of his birth name.
William Delaney Parker was born on the 17th of September 1898 at Parkside Adelaide. Father not stated, mother Amelia Parker single woman, informant Annie Berth Carter, friend. He was “given to”, no formal adoption was entered into, the daughter of Frederick Collins who is a friend of Amelia Parker, his mother. However when William is 2 or 3 years old she goes to Western Australia leaving him in her father, Frederick Collins's, care.
In 1907, at the age of 9, William was sentenced to industrial school until the age of 18 for being an uncontrollable child and Frederick Collins is fined for failing to send him to school. His admittance records of the 20th of December 1907 at the Edwardstown Industrial School state his mother as Amelia Parker Domestic Servant now in Western Australia but William is never told she is still alive and as yet I have not found the reason for this. Though I suspect she also wanted nothing to do with him and both the Edwardstown Industrial School & Eden Park Boys Home knew this. Reading William's admittance records it is very clear that Frederick Collins has also never wanted anything to do with him and can't wait to wash his hands of him.
On the 11th of April 1910 aged 11. William is transferred; to Eden Park Probationary School at Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills as he is deemed too unruly for the industrial school at Edwardstown. William was released at 18 years & 6 months, 6 months having been added for disciplinary reasons.
Seven months after his release from Eden Park Boys Home he enlists believing he has no parents, no family and no one to love. He knows nothing of his mother, siblings, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles or Cousins though his Mother is alive having her parents & 6 brothers and sisters living in or around Gawler in South Australia.
In fact during his whole life he was told his parents had died when he was young & that he had no living relations when in fact the opposite was true. What I also find staggering is that both the Edwardstown Industrial School & Eden Park Boys Home knew this & did not tell him.
William enlists on the 16th of June 1917 completing his basic training at the Mitcham Camp in Adelaide South Australia before sailing for England aboard the HMAT A32 Theristocles on the 4th of August, disembarked Glasgow 2/10/17 and was killed in a mopping up action in France 25 April 1918 near Villers-Bretonneux aged 19.
Signing a statuary declaration that his parents are dead and that he has no living family, he lists his next of kin as Miss Christina Margaret McFarlane, Mount Barker, South Australia (friend). Miss Christina Margaret McFarlane was the daughter of the Eden Park Boys Home Superintendant who also worked at the home & had befriended William during his time there.
After the war her claim on this medals, effects and war pension are refused on the grounds that she was not family. For some 10 years after advertisements appear in the papers in every state and territory seeking William's family but to no avail. We have since been awarded his service medals which I wear with pride at ANZAC day ceremonies.
William lay in France, anonymous, his story untold, his life not celebrated, his death not mourned for 95 years, so I speak his name often and loud as I can, it is the least we can do for a young man who received nothing from society but gave everything in return. Who was treated so poorly and with such distain by everyone concerned that it sickens me and I want to make amends, however small, for the injustices he suffered during his short life.
3686 William Delaney Parker, Private, 10/50th Battalion, B Company-Mitcham (Rifles), is remembered, honoured, his medals being used as a visual and tactile medium to complement our retelling of his story so that no one else forgets who he is or the sacrifice he made for all of us.
However we have no photo of him other than a grainy image taken at the Mitcham camp in Adelaide that we believe is him by comparing it to his brother’s (Frank Arthur) photo. I would be eternally grateful if anybody out there reading this can help point me in the right direction as I seek to locate a photo of this boy who had nothing, was treated so poorly and made the ultimate sacrifice.
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That A Man Lay Down His Life For His Friends.”
The 50th Battalions Book “HURCOMBE'S HUNGRY HALF HUNDRED” - A Memorial History of the 50th Battalion AIF 1916 – 1919 shows a group photo of the 10th reinforcement’s taken in Scotland but no names are listed and his service record states he was sick around the time the photo would have been taken.
Robert Burpee
Click images to start slideshow.