This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in September 2003 then re-written following the receipt of further information and published in the March 2004 magazine and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett.

JOHN PARSELL

For the Parsell* family, the rural area where North Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire join was very much home - at least until John went off to fight for King and Country. He was only 18 when he was killed in 1916.

In 1898, John was baptised at Stotfold with his father's name. John senior and his wife Sarah lived for some time in Holwell, which until 1897 was part of Bedfordshire. It would seem that some time around 1913, John and his parents moved to Pirton and lived in one of the several small cottages around Great Green. It is likely that his father was an agricultural worker moving from farm to farm.

On leaving school, John worked in Timothy White's chemist shop in the market square in Hitchin, now Threshers the off-licence. He is recorded as 'having done his work thoroughly and his painstaking ways won the admiration of those who knew him well'.

He joined the Herts Territorials in February 1914, well before his sixteenth birthday. He was in camp just before the outbreak of the Great War, but owing to his youth he did not go to France until July 1915. It was from our village that he enlisted and joined the 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment. When the Regiment went to the Front in November 1914, there were nine young men from Pirton included, seven of them with the first draft.

In February 1916, John Parsell had a short leave, spent in Pirton. By September of that year, the war was pursuing its ghastly course and the new 'secret weapon' of the British army - the tank - rolled into action on the western front; but the human carnage continued. By this time John Parsell was at the Front. On 10th September, the deaths of 651 British soldiers were recorded on the western front. Tragically one of these was 18 year old John Parsell who only a few days before had left hospital after an illness. He was the first of the Pirton men in the Herts Regiment ‘to make the great sacrifice of giving his life for the Country'. On that fateful day John was with two other Pirton colleagues from the same company when, in a barrage of shells from the German side, John was killed. In the same hideous shell explosion the other two Pirton men, Privates George Roberts and Arthur Walker, were wounded and Arthur was to die only 8 days later. **

A local paper wrote in the chilling words of the time: 'A kind-hearted son, full of patriotic pride for his country...we hope the villagers will feel proud of the noble sacrifice he has made for his Country'. To Sarah & John Snr the death must simply have been a heart-breaking loss of a son still only eighteen.

The dreadful matter of writing the letter to inform John & Sarah Parsell of their son's death fell to two Pirton men. At the request of Corpl. Harry Smith who was suffering from major shock, the task of letter writing was given to Pte. E Goldsmith. We can imagine the news from the war-torn trenches arriving in a seemingly peaceful Pirton and, in a moment, tearing the life of his family apart. The letter was written the day after John's death and parts of it read:

‘I now commence the most regrettable duty I have - to inform you that John was killed yesterday afternoon. It may be small consolation to you to know that his death was practically instantaneous. I was only about twenty yards from him at the time the shell burst. I can assure you he suffered no pain. He had been back with the Regiment only a few hours when it happened.'

The deep sense of comradeship, which had transferred from Pirton to the Western Front, was well expressed in the next part of the letter:

'He was very cheerful, having seen Fred Baines (who was to die on the 23rd October 1918) and Arthur Odell in the Royal Sussex (who was to die on the 26th February 1918 ), and George Thompson' (all were Pirton men). The letter says that the two Pirton men wounded at the same time as John Parsell were on their way back to England - Arthur Walker later died of his wounds. ‘We have been in the trenches to the burial of the dead. It was most touching to us, being such close comrades. I can only say his loss will be felt very keenly.' The writer goes on to say that only two of the nine Pirton men are left unwounded. The letter concludes by saying that when Pts Goldsmith returns to Pirton he would bring for John Parsell's mother 'one or two little articles' that were in her son's kit.

John Parsell was buried at the Knightsbridge Cemetery, Mesnil-Martinsart in France (Ref F.28). Five days after his death a war correspondent based in the British H.Q. wrote, ‘The taste of victory was like a strong drug to the men's hearts. They laughed even when blood was streaming down their faces.' All too late for John Parsell from the quiet village of Pirton. A few days later the Revd. E Langmore 'a touching reference to Pts John Parsell's death' during a Sunday service at St. Mary's.

*In some newspaper cuttings the family surname is spelt Parcell. We have preferred the spelling on our War Memorial.

** Pte Arthur Walker, will feature in another. Pte George Roberts returned to Pirton at the end of the War and later lived in a cottage in Royal Oak Lane, now no. 24. George married a Pirton girl but, so far as we know, the family connection with Pirton finished with George's wife's death in 1983. Their only daughter, Denise, had pre-deceased them.

*** For help with this article we thank: Clare Baines, Denise Marshall, Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Jonty Wild, Helen Hofton, Margot Anderson, Jenny Smart, Laura Forgham. Our thanks to Chris Ryan for the photo of the War Memorial.

Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk

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Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk

Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.

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