Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The historically important 1914 Star awarded to Private J. Parr, 4th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment), who was killed in action near Mons on 21 August 1914 - believed to be the first British soldier to be killed in action during the Great War

1914 Star, with copy clasp (L-14196 Pte. J. Parr. 4/Midd’x R.) nearly extremely fine £1,800-£2,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals.

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John Parr was born in 1897 at Finchley, Middlesex, the son of Edward and Alice Parr and, having left his job as a caddie at North Middlesex Golf Club, attested for the Middlesex Regiment in 1912, aged 15 years.

Following the outbreak of the Great War, still aged just 17, he embarked for France with the 4th Battalion of his regiment as part of the 8th Brigade in the 3rd Division, arriving in France among the first units of the British Expeditionary Force on 14 August 1914.

On 21 August, as the forward units of the British Army approached Mons and suspected some proximity to the advancing Germans, Parr, in his role as a reconnaissance cyclist, together with another cyclist, was sent forward towards the village of Obourg, north-east of Mons, to locate the German positions. It is thought that Parr and his fellow cyclist then encountered an Uhlan patrol from the German First Army and that Parr was killed in an exchange of fire whilst holding off the enemy in an attempt to allow his companion to return and report their findings.

The precise circumstances of Parr’s death are not entirely clear; however, he is considered to be, and recorded as, the first British Army soldier to have been killed in action during the Great War.

On 23 August, as the British Army began its long retreat following the Battle of Mons, Parr’s body was left behind and his death was not to be confirmed by the British War Office until much later. His body was buried by the Germans in a battlefield grave which was subsequently located by the Imperial War Graves Commission and he now lies buried in St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, near Mons, Belgium. Symbolically, his grave is opposite that of George Edwin Ellison, 5th Royal Irish Lancers, who was killed in action on 11 November 1918, and is thought to be the last British soldier to be killed in action during the Great War.