The son of the
minor counties cricketer Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Parke and his wife, Evelyn Jane Aelfrida, he was born at
Wimborne Minster. He was educated at
Winchester College from 1905–09, where he captained the college cricket team in his final year. He made a single appearance in
first-class cricket for the
British Army cricket team against
Cambridge University at
Fenner's in 1914. Batting twice in the match as an
opening batsman, he was dismissed for 11 runs by
Gordon Fairbairn in the Army's first-innings, while in their second-innings he was dismissed 7 runs by the same bowler. He served in the 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry during the
First World War, proceeding to France in September 1914. He was killed while attempting to lift a machine gun over a hedge near
Hazebrouck on the afternoon of 13 October 1914, while commanding the machine gun section. His initial burial site at the
Vieux-Berquin crossroads was the subject of a famous photograph of two young French girls tending to his grave. His body was subsequently moved to the Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension at
Bailleul. ==References==