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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

John Parr


Landsturm

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Nowadays resting in Saint Symphorien Military Cemetery... L/141916 Private John Parr, believed to be the first British battle casualty of the Great War, was killed August 21st 1914.

Born in the Finchley neighborhood of Barnet, a north London suburb, he enlisted in the 4th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment in 1913. At the beginning of the war he was part of a cycle reconnaissance unit and was on patrol near Oburg, just northeast of the town of Mons, Belgium. It is not certain how Parr became a casualty, but it is believed he and his partner encountered a patrol of the German First army and Parr remained behind to delay them while the other soldier returned to report. Because that area of Belgium was not recovered by the Allies until close to the end of the war (in fact, in one of the great ironies of the war, the last battle casualty of the war, Pvt. George Edwin Ellison, was killed close to the same spot on November 11, 1918), Parr's body was buried in a local cemetery by the Germans and not identified by the British until 1918. In 1914 it was originally hoped that he had been captured, but when no word came back through neutral sources that he was being held, he was listed as missing in action. And as he had lied about his age on his original enlistment application, his grave marker lists his age as 20 when it was actually 16.

(bio by: Paul F. Wilson)

What I'm curious is the exact position in the 4th Middlesex. Numerous sources mention a "cycle reconnaissance unit" or a "cyclist scout", but I'm having trouble finding this within the infantry battalion structure? Any special insignia on uniform?

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  • 3 months later...

After researching... I found out that he was actually attached to the Divisional Mounted Troops. 3rd Company, Army Cyclist Corps in this case.

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