View source for Parke George Herbert RAOC Pte 10583812

{{personnel
|Surname and forenames=Parke George Herbert
|Army number=10583812
|Rank=Private
|Decorations=
|Date of birth=Birth registered Q1 1923 at Mitford, Norfolk.  Mother's maiden surname Allcock.
|Age=20 at the time of his death.
|Unit=Joined the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.  Attached to Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.  Posted to 70 Brigade Workshops.  Killed in an accident 31/5/1943.
|Company/Battery=70 Brigade Workshops.
|Task or role=Not yet known.
|Promotions=None as far as is known.
|Wounded=No.
|Prisoner of War=No.
|Died/Killed in action=Killed in a minefield explosion at the Penally Rifle Ranges near Tenby, Pembrokeshire.  Some information indicates that he ignored warnings to use only a cleared path.
|Home address=Son of Herbert and Martha Parke of Norwich Road, Bawdeswell, East Dereham.  Had worked as a Butcher's assistant.  Buried in Bawdeswell Cemetery, North Side 5.6.  The legend below the cross on his headstone reads - "Abide with Me".
|Image Name=G_H_Parke.jpg
|Image Title=Pte George Herbert Parke - CWGC headstone
}}

A short article which appeared in the April 2011 edition of the Bawdeswell Parish Magazine - "The Reeve's Tale" in connection with local deaths during World War Two read as follows:-

“G.H. Parke; RAOC aged 20 died 31 May 1943. Son of Herbert and Martha Parke of Bawdeswell. After repeated warnings Parke failed to keep to the correct path on a firing range near Tenby, killed instantly by an explosion.   He was attached at the time of his death to the R.E.M.E. and had been a butcher’s assistant living at Norwich Rd, Bawdeswell East , Dereham.”

Sincere thanks are due to Emma Raines and to Robin Taylor for the above extract and for the headstone photograph.