Private John Parr

John Parr was born in 1898 in Barnet and grew up in North Finchley, in London. John joined a territorial unit of the Middlesex Regiment in 1912, lying about his age. He was only 14 at the time (five years younger than the legal age to fight), weighed 8.5 stone and was 5’3” tall. This evidence of his youth soon earned him the nickname 'Ole Parr' among his comrades.

Parr became a reconnaissance cyclist – a soldier who rode ahead to gather information on the advancing enemy. In August 1914, Parr's battalion was stationed in the village of Bettignies, in northern France. Historians disagree about the cause of his death, but the most common account is that Parr was sent to find a missing unit and was killed by rifle fire on 21 August after encountering a German cavalry patrol.

His body was never identified. His mother wrote to Parr's regiment repeatedly over the following years, asking to be informed of her son's fate, but she received no information. The age given on Parr's gravestone is 20. He was actually 17.