Cyril Whitworth Parkin

Cyril enlisted in Newark and served with the 1/8th battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derbys ) Regiment , his medal index card indicated his first theatre of war was in France on 2nd march 1915. He became a Lewis gunner and was killed when a trench mortar exploded in his trench on 13th September 1917 ,he is Buried in Cambrin Military Cemetery L.16

L/Cpl Cyril W Parkin Retford Times 28 Sept 1917 This week we reproduce a photograph of the late Lance Corpl Cyril W Parkin, Sherwood Foresters which was taken three years ago when at Harpenden. He was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs J C Parkin, Blyth Farm, Hayton and was killed by a large trench mortar shell on the night of the 12th. He was a Lewis Gunner and was at his post at the time and was killed instantaneously together with several comrades. Lieut Elly in a sympathetic letter to the grief stricken parents, said that their son suffered no pain whatever and was buried in a British cemetery just behind the lines. “He was an excellent NCO – one of the coolest men I have known in times of danger – and will be greatly missed both by his officers and his comrades. CSM W H Stokes, in his letter says that , “All the NCS’s and men join in offering our deepest sympathy in your loss. Your son was a good soldier and was respected by everyone in the Company.” The chaplain, Rev W Noel Kempe, curate of St James, Derby, in the course of his letter says:- “Corpl Parkin was carried reverently down the lines to the little sheltered cemetery not far away where I laid him to rest on the 13th. You must bear in mind that our brave men who have given up their lives in the cause of the service of God will most surely be kept by him until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, when we will all meet each other again.” Miss Haigh, the deceased’s Sunday School teacher at the Normanton Wesleyan Chapel, also wrote a letter of sympathy. The deceased, who was 22 years of age on August 15th last, had only returned to France a fortnight ago. He was on leave at the same time as his brother, Pte E G Parkin, York and Lancs , who was wounded in the battle of Messines. He enlisted before he was 17 years of age and is now at Sunderland. He will be 18 on October 31st. Lance Corpl Parkin was born at Normanton on Trent where the parents were married at St Matthews Church. The bell was tolled on the receipt of the news of Corpl Parkin’s death. He was with Mr Cowan Smith, Bothamsall Hall at the time of his enlistment at the outbreak of the war. He went to France early in 1915 and in May of that year was wounded and spent eleven weeks at Coventry Hospital. He returned to France in March of last year. Mr and Mrs Parkin came to Hayton in the spring of 1916.