Thomas Chase Parr
Thomas Chase Parr (1802–1883) was a British officer of the East India Company's Bombay Army. He ended his military career with the rank of full general.[1]
Life[edit]
He was the son of John Owen Parr I, eldest son of John Parr of Liverpool, by his wife Elizabeth Mary Patrick, daughter of Thomas Patrick. John Owen Parr I was a merchant in the African trade and an insurance broker of Lloyd's of London in partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas Chase Patrick, who however were declared bankrupt in August 1808.[2]
Parr was an East India Company cadet for the 1818 season.[3] In the 113th Infantry, he took part in the Bani Bu Ali expedition of 1821, and was present at the night attack on Sur.[1][4] As a young Ensign, he survived a notorious attack by a man-eating tiger in 1825, an event described by his companion James Outram, who shot the tiger.[5]
Parr commanded the Marine Battalion 1833–1835, and the 7th Bombay Native Infantry, in particular in the 1845 operations in the Southern Mahratta country against the rebellion there.[1]
Then Parr took furlough, an extended period in which he married and started a family. His arrival in the United Kingdom in November 1845 was reported, his rank then being a major in the 7th Native Infantry.[6] The East-India Register and Army List for 1847 has him as a lieutenant-colonel with the 1st European Regiment, on furlough.[7] On 22 February 1849 he was presented to Queen Victoria at a levée, by Thomas Pemberton Leigh.[8] In March 1849 he was given leave to remain in the United Kingdom.[9]
Parr's wife gave birth to a daughter in Bhuj, in 1851.[10] In the 1856 East-India Register and Army List, Parr was listed as colonel, commandant at Kurrachee (Karachi), and on furlough.[11] He was Colonel of the 2nd European Regiment during the Indian Mutiny.
On leaving India, Parr took with him the colours of the 7th Bombay Native Infantry.[12] By the late 1860s, he was living in Harrow-on-the-Hill.[13] He moved to Kent around 1873–4, leaving the colours to the church at Harrow.[12] He died at Bickley on 15 June 1883[1] and is buried in St Mary's, Harrow-on-the-Hill.[14]
Family[edit]
Parr married in 1846 Harriet Pott, second daughter of Charles Pott of Freelands.[15] Freelands was a house owned by Samuel Scott as part of his Sundridge Park estate, near Bromley, Kent, from 1818. The Pott family were long-term tenants, to 1876.[16][17]
The children of the marriage included:
- Charles Chase Parr (died 1897, aged 49).[18] He married in 1872 Katherine Anne Millar;[19] their daughter Olive Katherine Parr was the writer Beatrice Chase.[20]
- Alfred Arthur Chase Parr (1849–1914), naval officer.[21][22] Cape Parr in Antarctica was named after him.[23]
- Willoughby Chase Parr, third son, cleric.[24] Father of Martin Willoughby Parr.[25]
- Percivall Chase Parr, fourth son.[26]
- Harriet Bertha, married 1876 Robert Hebert Quick.[27]
- Emily Oliver, artist.[28]
The Rev. Canon John Owen Parr II (1798-1877), vicar of Preston, Lancashire, was his elder brother.[29] He married firstly in 1821 Maria-Elizabeth Wright, by whom he had nine children; secondly in 1857 his sister-in-law, Mary Emily Pott, youngest surviving daughter of Charles Pott;[30] and thirdly in secret in 1858 his domestic servant, Alice Stewardson, an alliance which was to lead to scandal.[31]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c d Vane, The Hon W. L. (24 February 2012). Durham Light Infantry: The United Red and White Rose. Andrews UK Limited. p. 254. ISBN 978-1-78151-541-9.
- ^ Annual Register. Vol. 1. p. 504.
- ^ East-India Register and Directory. W.H. Allen. 1819. p. 314.
- ^ The New Annual Army List, Militia List, and Yeomanry Cavalry List. J. Murray. 1881. p. 408 note 20.
- ^ James Outram: A Biography by Major-General Sir F J Goldsmid CB KCSI (PDF). Vol. 1. London Smith Elder and Co. 1880. pp. 102–3.
- ^ Allen's Indian Mail, and Register of Intelligence for British and Foreign India, China, and All Parts of the East. 1845. p. 701.
- ^ The India Office and Burma Office List. Harrison and sons, Limited. 1847. p. 26.
- ^ "Her Majesty's Levee". London Evening Standard. 23 February 1849. p. 1.
- ^ Allen's Indian Mail and Register of Intelligence for British & Foreign India, China, & All Parts of the East. William H. Allen. 1849. p. 187.
- ^ "Births". Morning Post. 4 April 1851. p. 8.
- ^ East-India Register and Army List. W.H. Allen. 1856. p. 19.
- ^ a b Bombay Historical Society (1930). Journal. Society. p. 42.
- ^ Bushell, William Done (1912). Introduction to the architecture and history of the parish church of st. Mary, Harrow-on-the-hill. Revised and repr. Bowes & Bowes. p. 24.
- ^ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65269690/thomas-chase-parr
- ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. Vol. XXVI. Edw. Cave, 1736-[1868]. 1846. p. 88.
- ^ A History of Bromley, in Kent, and the surrounding neighbourhood [By Edward Strong. With plates.]. Edward Strong. 1858. p. 119.
- ^ Horsburgh, Edward Lee Stuart (1929). "The Surroundings of Bromley Town, Ch. 10 of Bromley, Kent" (PDF). irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com. p. 199.
- ^ Norman, Philip (1897). Scores and Annals of the West Kent Cricket Club, 1812-1896, Originally the Prince's Plain Club: With Some Account of the Neighbourhoods of Chislehurst and Bromley and of the Families Residing There. Eyre & Spottiswoode. pp. 259 and 362.
- ^ "Marriages". London Evening Standard. 12 February 1872. p. 7.
- ^ The Child. John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd. 1924. p. 280.
- ^ Markham, Sir Clements Robert (1876). The Threshold of the Unknown Region. S. Low, Marston, Searles & Rivington. p. 411.
- ^ "Alfred Parr collection - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
- ^ United States Board on Geographic Names; United States Defense Mapping Agency Geographic Names Data Base Division (1981). Geographic Names of the Antarctic. National Science Foundation. p. 641.
- ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
- ^ "Parr, Martin Willoughby". Who's Who. A & C Black. Retrieved 15 December 2022. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
- ^ Sell, Alan P. F. (20 March 2015). Four Philosophical Anglicans: W. G. DeBurgh, W. R. Matthews, O. C. Quick, H. A. Hodges. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-4982-2008-8.
- ^ "Suffolk Artists - Parr, Emily Oliver". suffolkartists.co.uk.
- ^ Burke, Bernard (1879). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison. p. 1236.
- ^ Walford, Edward (1864). The County Families of the United Kingdom, Or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland. Hardwicke. p. 775.
- ^ "John Owen Parr".