Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Christopher James Parsons

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CHRISTOPHER JAMES PARSONS: 1890 – 1947

Christopher was the first of two children born to James and Maria Parsons. James was a teacher and had been appointed as a master at Berkhamsted School in 1888. The following year he and Maria married and Christopher was born in Berkhamsted on 11^th February 1890 and baptised at St. Peter’s church on 12^th March that year. Hester, Christopher’s sister, was born three years later in 1893.

In 1896 James became a housemaster at the school by opening a “waiting house”, Broomfield, in Boxwell Road and in 1898 he built at his own expense Incents, a new boarding house on Chesham Road and it was at Incents that the family was living in 1901.[1]

Christopher was himself a pupil at Berkhamsted School, leaving at Christmas 1906. Christopher had been a House Prefect and a sergeant in the school’s cadet corps.[2] He was goalkeeper for the school soccer 2^nd XI. [3]

It has not been possible to trace Christopher in the census of 1911, but there is a record of a Mr C. J. Parsons taking passage on the S.S. Avon to Santos, Brazil, on 24^th May 1912. Unfortunately, the record does not provide dates of birth or addresses of passengers, so it is difficult to be certain that the C. J. Parsons who set sail for Brazil in 1912 is indeed the C. J. Parsons with whom we are concerned, but given that we do know that after World War I Christopher settled in Brazil as a coffee planter, it does seem likely that this is him and that his first association with Brazil (and presumably coffee) began in 1912.

Christopher must have returned to England before, or on the eve of the outbreak of the Great War, as on 26^th September 1914 he was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant[4] in the 13^th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. Although this battalion was formed in Newcastle, it was part of 21^st Division which concentrated at Halton Park for training before moving into local billets in the area, including Berkhamsted. The battalion moved to France in September 1915, their first experience of action being at Loos where they suffered heavy casualties. In 1916 they were in action in the Battle of the Somme and in 1917 were again in action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line.[5] In August 1917 the battalion was amalgamated with the 12^th battalion.

On the 18^th July 1917 Christopher married Kathleen, “Kitty”, Somes at St John’s church, Putney. At the time of his marriage Christopher had been discharged from the Army; he is noted on his marriage certificate not as an officer in the Army, but as a “clerk” and notice of the wedding described him as “…late Lieut., Northumberland Fusiliers…”  Christopher had been honourably discharged from the Army due to wounds or sickness suffered during military service.[6] 

Kitty was Christopher’s second cousin.[7] Family history relates that Christopher “…went out abroad doing coffee plantations, I think, and when Kitty married him, she went out there to live; and Aunt Alice [Kitty’s mother] went with her, because she was her only daughter and she was terribly devoted to her and so she went and lived out there with them for a time, whilst she had her first child. Then, I think, she came back to London again and I suppose they must have come back too”[8]

In fact, their first child, Christine, was born not abroad, but in Brentford in the third quarter of 1918. Their second child, Christopher Henry James Parsons, was born abroad in Rio de Janiero in 1920, so it seems that Christopher had indeedreturned to Brazil to grow coffee. Christopher’s mother-in-law was apparently not keen on her son-in-law: “But I don’t think that Aunt Alice was very keen on the marriage and he was rather a misery.”  Family history also records some question as to Christopher Henry’s paternity; “The second child was Christopher Henry James (1920 - 2003), born in Rio de Janero [sic]. When I visited this Christopher, he confessed he was not certain that Christopher James was his biological father, and that might have been Charles Robertson, but his son does not believe this.”[9]

There is no trace of Christopher and family in the 1921 census, and they were no doubt still in Brazil, but they had returned to Berkhamsted by 1935 as there is a photograph dating from then of Christopher and two other members of the Berkhamsted Golf Club with the then Prince of Wales.  In 1939, Christopher and Kitty were living in Milton House in Doctor’s Commons Road. Christopher had retired as a coffee merchant. Christopher Henry was still living with his parents and they also employed a live in domestic maid and a cook.[10] 

Christopher may have thought that his soldiering days were over when he was honourably discharged from the Army in 1917, but with the outbreak of World War II he again donned khaki, serving as a sergeant in B Company, 7^th Hertfordshire Battalion, Home Guard[11] throughout the war until the Home Guard was stood down in 1944.[12]

Christopher died on 11^th February 1947, his fifty-seventh birthday at Berkhamsted. His estate was valued at £17,356.1s 4d.