Sergeant Stanley Parker

Stanley Parker was born at Prahran, Victoria, during 1895 to parents Jonathon Robert Parker and Isabella Parker (née Green). The family lived at Corindhap, Victoria, near Ballarat and he had an elder sister and a younger brother. Parker was a fitter and turner by trade and served an apprenticeship of three years at the Victorian Railway Workshops in the Melbourne suburb of Newport. As part of his mandatory militia training, required under the terms of the Defence Act 1909, Parker served as a Cadet and for a year in the 23rd Battery, Australian Field Artillery.

Parker enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in July 1915 and was attached to the 11th Battery, 4th Field Artillery Brigade. He was promoted to Corporal in September 1915. On 18 November 1915, Parker embarked from Melbourne aboard the troopship Wiltshire.

On board during the voyage, the unit staged A Grand Concert on 27 November 1915. Parker participated in this concert by singing “Somewhere A Voice is Calling” and was also one of the participants in a boxing bout as part of the program.

Parker disembarked at Suez, Egypt, in December 1915, with his unit attached to the British Expeditionary Force in Alexandria. In March 1916, the unit went to France. In June 1916, Parker was promoted to Sergeant in the field and in October 1916, while in France, he suffered from a gas attack and was hospitalised. Soon after release in November 1917, he returned to his unit and was gassed a second time.

Parker was sent to England in November 1917 to recover, and then returned to action in France in April 1918. In May 1918, Parker received a severe gunshot wound to the hip and was again sent to England for treatment at the Fulham Military Hospital. He returned to Australia aboard the troopship Morvada on 4 January 1919. He arrived in Australia on 20 February 1919 and was discharged on 12 April 1919 as medically unfit.

Parker’s younger brother, John Charles Parker, also enlisted in the AIF on the same day as Stanley and was attached to the Army Medical Corps, 10th Field Ambulance.

Following his discharge, Parker married Mary Eleanor Ward in 1919. The couple had two sons. Parker continued with his former trade as a fitter and turner, and his occupation appears as engineer in the 1924 electoral records.

He survived his wife, sister who died at the age of 83, his brother who died at the age of 81, and his oldest son. Stanley Parker died at Balwyn, Victoria, on 18 October 1979 at the age of 84.