1914-15 Star (3) (K.21398 E. C. Marsh Sto. 1. R.N.; J.24088 W. A. Parsons. O. Sig. R.N.; SS.1568 F. Sands A.B. R.N.) very fine (3) £70-£90

E. C. Marsh was serving in H.M.S. Africa in September 1918 at Sierra Leone when the ship was overtaken by the influenza pandemic. By 9 September some 476 crew members were reported ill. By 14 September 16 men had died and burial parties were being sent ashore daily. Marsh was to succumb the following day and he is buried in Freetown (King Tom) Cemetery. By the time Africa lowered her quarantine flag on 30 September 1918, 52 crew members had died of illness.

William Archie Parsons was born on 24 August 1896 in Ashton Lancashire. His attestation papers list him as a ‘Music Hall attendant’ when he joined training ship H.M.S. Impregnable on 30 April 1913. He went on to serve at H.M.S. Victory (I) and H.M.S. Ganges before he was promoted to Ordinary Signalman and finally went to sea aboard H.M.S. Bulwark on his 18th birthday. Tragically his naval career was not to be a long one and he was lost when H.M.S. Bulwark blew up in an accidental explosion whilst off the coast of Sheerness on 26 November 1914. He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.