Background

Charles Parkinson was born February 16, 1897 in Dogdyke, England to West Walter Parkinson and Minnie Wilkinson. According to records, Charles had a large family including three sisters, Annie, Margaret, and Kate, as well as four brothers, Sydney, Alfred, Edwin, and Walter. Although there are few records explaining the family’s reason for coming to Canada from England, a passenger list shows the entire family arriving to Saint John from Liverpool in April of 1905, aboard a ship called the “Virginian”. The document also reveals that Charles’ father was a farmer destined for St. Mary’s, York County. While little is known of the particulars of their life upon arriving in Fredericton, newspapers suggest that West would volunteer with the 104th Battalion and that Charles and his brothers would quickly find work as mill labourers in the area once they were old enough.

Records show that the family had a home at 318 Regent Street during the war and that they had connections to the Oromocto area, as an address belonging to Minnie can be found in Charles’ attestation. It is possible that the family moved to another residence while Charles and his father were overseas. At the time of his formal enlistment in Fredericton, April 15, 1915, Charles had prior military experience serving with the local militia and he was not married. According to his attestation, he was seventeen years old and described as having blue eyes, brown hair, a dark complexion, and standing five feet seven inches tall. Along with other Fredericton boys in the area, he would join the 55th Battalion and later be drafted to the 14th Battalion as reinforcement while overseas. After leaving for training, documents suggest that he would never return home to family and friends.

Wartime Experience

On June 19, 1915, Private Charles Parkinson embarked from Levis, Quebec aboard the S.S. Corsican for Shorncliffe, England. Upon arrival, Charles would immediately be with the 12th Battalion for about two months before being drafted to the 14th Battalion, which was preparing to go to France in late summer. His service record reveals that he would join the 14th Battalion on August 28, 1915, arriving in France the next day.

While Charles Parkinson would only have two months of training in England, he would take the time to write his will leaving everything to his mother, Minnie Parkinson. According to his active service file, on September 12, 1915, he left with his unit for Northern France and the Ypres Salient where Charles would serve until the battle of Mont Sorrell, a month before the Battle of the Somme. Over the next eight months, Private Parkinson’s service record illustrates a soldier with an uneasy relationship with authority. On two occasions, he was given punishments for five and then twenty-eight days for “being absent from working party without permission” and later for “insolence to an officer”. Regardless, he would be granted a leave of absence to England in March 1916, and would return to his unit the beginning of April where he would be attached to a trench mortar battery.

According to the Canadian War Museum, leading up to the Battle of Mont Sorrell, the Germans were trying to secure remaining high grounds in the Ypres Salient and northern France, and as a result were attacking Canadian positions. Their goal was also to divert the Allied resources from an offensive that they knew was being prepared in the Somme region. As a result, the 3rd Canadian division was brutally cut down by a well-planned artillery bombardment and destroyed forward Canadian positions killing hundreds of soldiers including the division commander, Major-General Malcom Mercer.

The German infantry then captured the Canadian positions on Mont Sorrell on two surrounding hills. The Canadians launched a swiftly organized counter-attack on June 3 but failed. Three days’ later, the Germans exploded three mines under Canadian positions and captured the village of Hooge. Sir Julian Byng, the commander of the Canadian Corps, was determined to take back the lost ground and attacked after a large artillery bombardment in the early hours of June 13. In this vital battle, the Canadians were able to drive off German forces and take back much of their lost ground. This was a large victory since the Canadians had lost the first two phases of the operation.

It was during this time that local newspapers revealed Charles Parkinson had been killed by a high explosive shell that wounded two other soldiers and that instantly killed him. The paper also revealed a letter received from Charles Parkinson’s mother, whose husband, Corporal West Parkinson, had just reached England with the 104th Battalion. The letter, written by Col. Paul P. Powis of the French Mortar Battery Charles had been attached to, reads as follows:

“We had just gone into the trenches just before the Canadians launched an attack. We had done good work, having fired 100 rounds of ammunition, when a big shell burst right alongside our position, wounding two men badly and killing your son instantly which, I trust, is a slight comfort to you when it is considered that so many fine soldiers had to stay for hours out in the front, mortally wounded, without getting the least possible assistance, as every able man had to drive on in the attack. I brought in one poor fellow who had been without food or drink, for thirty-six hours, having come across him by the merest chance. Such is the price of victory, and it was indeed a splendid achievement; and your son’s life has not been in vain. His comrades, wish me to convey to you their deepest sympathy. Your son was not under my command long, but he always did his duty cheerfully and died like a true soldier”.

At the time of his death on June 15, 1916, it was reported in newspapers that among the many items sent home to his mother was a leather case containing a number of photos of himself and his brothers and sisters. The case had been pierced by a piece of shell that had killed Private Parkinson. Charles was nineteen years of age, leaving behind his family and many friends back home in Fredericton.

Lest We Forget

Private Charles Parkinson is honoured at the Railway Dugouts Burial (Burial Farm) located in west Vlaaderen, Belgium. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Charles Parkinson is one of the approximately 2459 burials honoured here. The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Latyens.