Parnell, ME
(1885 - 1917)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
23rd December 1885
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1899 - 1899
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
St. Norman's, 86 London Road, Forest Hill
REGIMENT
36th Jacob's Horse, Indian Army
FINAL RANK:
Captain
DATE OF DEATH:
1st December 1917
AGE AT DEATH:
31
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Vaucelette Farm
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Heudicourt Communal Cemetery Extension. C 12
Captain Mervyn Edmund Parnell
Mervyn was born on December 23rd 1885, the youngest of five children of surgeon Gerald Parnell and his wife, Mary. He came to the College from the Prep in the summer of 1899 but left at the end of that year to take up a place at Haileybury, where one of his relatives was on the Board of Governors. In March 1905 he joined the military, at first serving as a reservist with the Shropshire Light Infantry before, two years later, taking up a full-time commission in the Gloucestershire Regiment. In 1909 he transferred to the Indian Army, serving with the 36th Jacob’s Horse, and later that year was promoted to Lieutenant.
In 1914, after the outbreak of hostilities, Mervyn and his regiment were assigned to the Western Front, where he was to serve for the next several years. In January 1916 he was promoted to Captain, at the same time being appointed to the role of Adjutant. On December 1st 1917 he was killed in action whilst serving at Vaucelette Farm, near the village of Epehy.
