Rededication service for Private Thomas Parry, King's Own Scottish Borderers at Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Belgium

The rededication ceremony for Private Thomas Parry, King's Own Scottish Borderers took place at CWGC Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Belgium on 19 October 2022.

The service was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the ‘MOD War Detectives’. It was conducted by The Reverend Andy Nicolls, CF. Pte. Parry was previously commemorated on the CWGC Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

Pte. Parry's rededication was one of six happening around Ypres, Belgium over the 18 and 19 October for soldiers lost in World War One with each ceremony attended by family members and representatives from the current day equivalents of these casualties’ regiments (Royal Fusiliers, the Mercian Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps and the Royal Regiment of Scotland).

Louise Dorr, MOD JCCC case worker said:
“Our thanks go to several of our regular researchers, who have investigated these six graves and been able to prove who is buried in each of them. Thanks to their efforts we have been able to confirm their findings and return these soldiers’ names to them. I’m so honoured to have been able to be here to rededicate their final resting places.”

Pte. Parry's headstone was replaced by CWGC as part of the rededication. 

Director for the Central and Southern European Area at the CWGC, Geert Bekaert, said: 
“We are privileged to be able to honour these six brave men, who all paid the ultimate sacrifice fighting in the Great War. Thanks to the research and work of many, we are able to renew our commitment to care for these soldiers’ graves, in perpetuity” 

Private Thomas Parry

Stephen Gore, great nephew of Pte Parry is pictured with his wife Julie at the grave. (Crown copyright)

Although Thomas Parry served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, he was a Lancashire man, who was born and lived in the Leigh/Atherton/Tyldesley area. He was the son of George and Jane (nee Mahon) Parry. He was aged five when he first appeared in the 1901 Census, living with his family in Union Street, Atherton. By the time of the 1911 Census, he was 15 and working as a Cotton Mule Piecer in a Lancashire cotton mill. He was still living with his parents, although they’d moved to Oldham Street in Tyldesley by this time.

Pte. Parry was originally buried in the approximate location of Lankhof Chateau as “Unknown Soldier of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers”,north of the Ypres – Comines canal.

The war diaries tell us that from the end of May until the middle of July 1915, work parties were sent out each night, tasked with joining up the firing line and trenches and building communication trenches. They came under constant bomb and trench mortar attacks. Report of Pte. Parry’s death state that “the men are burying him this afternoon in the grounds of a big house”. Pte Parry was 19 years old.