George Bowles Parker





Corner of Park St, High Wycombe (picture from SWOP website) 		George Bowles Parker's grave in High Wycombe Cemetery George Bowles Parker




George Bowles Parker 1900 - 1920

My name is George Bowles Parker and I was born in 1900 in High Wycombe. My parents were Owen & Agnes Daisy nee Bowles. We lived at 24, Park Street, High Wycombe and my father was a chair maker. I was the baby of the family and my siblings were Fanny aged 8yrs, Ethel aged 6yrs, Ivy aged 4yrs and Gladys aged 3yrs.

Ten years later in 1911 the family were still living at the same address and I was now ten and the oldest child still at home. All my older siblings had left the nest but I was now the older brother of Ruperta aged 8yrs, Bertha aged 6yrs, William aged 2yrs and Margaret aged 6mths. So my parents had a large family.

I was only eighteen years old when the Great War ended and so I felt I had missed all the action. However, I served with the 52nd in Germany, and in March 1919 I was in Limerick in Ireland where I took part in operations against the IRA & Sinn Fein. Sadly I had completed only 18 months service when I was involved in the Oola Ambush on 30th July 1920 which resulted in my death. Do you know about the Oola Ambush? Let me tell you:

Brigadier General Lucas was captured by IRA rebels while on a fishing holiday on 26th June 1920 but managed to escape and was travelling in a Crossley tender manned by the 43rd Light Infantry when it was stopped on the Tipperary side of Oola by a barricade across the road. A volley was fired by a group of about 50 men who had been hiding there. The soldiers on board the Crossley fired back and during the next 30 mins myself and another soldier were shot dead and three more were wounded. Another Crossley arrived with six armed policemen on board from Oola and the IRA rebels retreated.

I was twenty years old and a Lance Corporal by then. The other soldier killed was Private Daniel Verey Bayliss who was only eighteen years old. We were both in the 1st Battalion of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry.

A full account of the incident can be found at https://gbparkeroxbucksli.wordpress.com/oola-ambush/

My name appears on the High Wycombe Hospital Memorial Plaque.



Researched by Ruth Bowler, Flackwell Local Area History Group

Back to map