Ajax Veterans Street Dedication: Parsons Road

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Description

Street Name: Parsons Road
Name of Veteran: John Henry Bickersteth Parsons 1910-June 2, 1940
Rank: Leading Seaman, L.T.O.
Ship Served: HMS Ajax
Date of Service on Ship: 1939
Year of Visit/Dedication: June 10, 2003
Veteran or Family Visit: n/a
Veteran of the Battle of the River Plate: Yes
Died at Battle: No

John was born in 1910 in Thornton Heath, Croydon to George Norris and Marian Parson. He was one of seven children. He came from a long line of clergyman on both sides of his family and received the unusual middle name, Bickersteth after his maternal Great-Grandmother.

While serving onboard the Ajax he was ranked as Leading Seaman and Leading Torpedo Man (L.T.O.). Leading Torpedo Man was in reality a practical electrician as well as a gunner-torpedoman. He died during the Dunkirk Evacuation, Operation Dynamo on June 2, 1940. He went missing and was presumed killed during the attack; he was twenty-nine years old.

During John’s career with the Royal Navy he was awarded the Chilean and Palestine Medals. A tree was planted in honour of Leading Seaman Parsons by Town Council under the Millennium Tree Planting Project in June 2003.

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