Thomas Chase Parr Explained

Thomas Chase Parr (1802–1883) was a British officer of the East India Company's Bombay Army. He ended his military career with the rank of full general.^[1]

Life

He was the son of John Owen Parr I, eldest son of John Parr of Liverpool, by his wife Elizabeth Mary Patrick, daughter of Thomas Patrick. John Owen Parr I was a merchant in the African trade and an insurance broker of Lloyd's of London in partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas Chase Patrick, who however were declared bankrupt in August 1808.^[2]

Parr was an East India Company cadet for the 1818 season.^[3] In the 113th Infantry, he took part in the Bani Bu Ali expedition of 1821, and was present at the night attack on Sur.^{[1] [4]} As a young Ensign, he survived a notorious attack by a man-eating tiger in 1825, an event described by his companion James Outram, who shot the tiger.^[5]

Parr commanded the Marine Battalion 1833–1835, and the 7th Bombay Native Infantry, in particular in the 1845 operations in the Southern Mahratta country against the rebellion there.^[1]

Then Parr took furlough, an extended period in which he married and started a family. His arrival in the United Kingdom in November 1845 was reported, his rank then being a major in the 7th Native Infantry.^[6] The East-India Register and Army List for 1847 has him as a lieutenant-colonel with the 1st European Regiment, on furlough.^[7] On 22 February 1849 he was presented to Queen Victoria at a levée, by Thomas Pemberton Leigh.^[8] In March 1849 he was given leave to remain in the United Kingdom.^[9]

Parr's wife gave birth to a daughter in Bhuj, in 1851.^[10] In the 1856 East-India Register and Army List, Parr was listed as colonel, commandant at Kurrachee (Karachi), and on furlough.^[11] He was Colonel of the 2nd European Regiment during the Indian Mutiny.

On leaving India, Parr took with him the colours of the 7th Bombay Native Infantry.^[12] By the late 1860s, he was living in Harrow-on-the-Hill.^[13] He moved to Kent around 1873–4, leaving the colours to the church at Harrow.^[12] He died at Bickley on 15 June 1883^[1] and is buried in St Mary's, Harrow-on-the-Hill.^[14]

Family

Parr married in 1846 Harriet Pott, second daughter of Charles Pott of Freelands.^[15] Freelands was a house owned by Samuel Scott as part of his Sundridge Park estate, near Bromley, Kent, from 1818. The Pott family were long-term tenants, to 1876.^{[16] [17]}

The children of the marriage included:

• Charles Chase Parr (died 1897, aged 49).^[18] He married in 1872 Katherine Anne Millar;^[19] their daughter Olive Katherine Parr was the writer Beatrice Chase.^[20]
• Alfred Arthur Chase Parr (1849–1914), naval officer.^{[21] [22]} Cape Parr in Antarctica was named after him.^[23]
• Willoughby Chase Parr, third son, cleric. Father of Martin Willoughby Parr.
• Percivall Chase Parr, fourth son.
• Harriet Bertha, married 1876 Robert Hebert Quick.^[24]
• Emily Oliver, artist.^[25]

The Rev. Canon John Owen Parr II (1798-1877), vicar of Preston, Lancashire, was his elder brother.^[26] He married firstly in 1821 Maria-Elizabeth Wright, by whom he had nine children; secondly in 1857 his sister-in-law, Mary Emily Pott, youngest surviving daughter of Charles Pott;^[27] and thirdly in secret in 1858 his domestic servant, Alice Stewardson, an alliance which was to lead to scandal.^[28]

Notes and References

1. Book: Vane . The Hon W. L. . Durham Light Infantry: The United Red and White Rose . 24 February 2012 . Andrews UK Limited . 978-1-78151-541-9 . 254 . en.
2. Book: Annual Register. 1. 504 .
3. Book: East-India Register and Directory . 1819 . W.H. Allen . 314 . en.
4. Book: The New Annual Army List, Militia List, and Yeomanry Cavalry List . 1881 . J. Murray . 408 note 20 . en.
5. Book: James Outram: A Biography by Major-General Sir F J Goldsmid CB KCSI. 1880. London Smith Elder and Co. 1. 102–3. en.
6. Book: Allen's Indian Mail, and Register of Intelligence for British and Foreign India, China, and All Parts of the East . 1845 . 701 . en.
7. Book: The India Office and Burma Office List . 1847 . Harrison and sons, Limited . 26 . en.
8. News: Her Majesty's Levee . London Evening Standard . 23 February 1849. 1.
9. Book: Allen's Indian Mail and Register of Intelligence for British & Foreign India, China, & All Parts of the East . 1849 . William H. Allen . 187 . en.
10. News: Births . Morning Post . 4 April 1851. 8.
11. Book: East-India Register and Army List . 1856 . W.H. Allen. . 19 . en.
12. Book: Bombay Historical Society . Journal . 1930 . Society . 42 . en.
13. Book: Bushell . William Done . Introduction to the architecture and history of the parish church of st. Mary, Harrow-on-the-hill. Revised and repr . 1912 . Bowes & Bowes . 24 . en.
14. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65269690/thomas-chase-parr
15. Book: The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. XXVI . 1846 . Edw. Cave, 1736-[1868] . 88 . en.
16. Book: A History of Bromley, in Kent, and the surrounding neighbourhood [By Edward Strong. With plates.] ]. 1858 . Edward Strong . 119 . en.
17. Web site: Horsburgh . Edward Lee Stuart . The Surroundings of Bromley Town, Ch. 10 of Bromley, Kent . irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com. 199. 1929.
18. Book: Norman . Philip . Scores and Annals of the West Kent Cricket Club, 1812-1896, Originally the Prince's Plain Club: With Some Account of the Neighbourhoods of Chislehurst and Bromley and of the Families Residing There . 1897 . Eyre & Spottiswoode . 259 and 362 . en.
19. News: Marriages . London Evening Standard . 12 February 1872. 7.
20. Book: The Child . 1924 . John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd. . 280 . en.
21. Book: Markham . Sir Clements Robert . The Threshold of the Unknown Region . 1876 . S. Low, Marston, Searles & Rivington . 411 . en.
22. Web site: Alfred Parr collection - Archives Hub . archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
23. Book: United States Board on Geographic Names . United States Defense Mapping Agency Geographic Names Data Base Division . Geographic Names of the Antarctic . 1981 . National Science Foundation . 641 . en.
24. Book: Sell . Alan P. F. . Four Philosophical Anglicans: W. G. DeBurgh, W. R. Matthews, O. C. Quick, H. A. Hodges . 20 March 2015 . Wipf and Stock Publishers . 978-1-4982-2008-8 . 143 . en.
25. Web site: Suffolk Artists - Parr, Emily Oliver . suffolkartists.co.uk.
26. Book: Burke . Bernard . A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland . 1879 . Harrison . 1236 . en.
27. Book: Walford . Edward . The County Families of the United Kingdom, Or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland . 1864 . Hardwicke . 775 . en.
28. Web site: John Owen Parr.