Person    | Male  Born 14/1/1856  Died 4/7/1915

Frederick Parslow, VC

Categories: Armed Forces, Transport

War dead, WW1 i

Commemorated on a memorial as having died in WW1.

Born Islington. Mercantile marine, Captain of the SS Anglo-Californian. Died in a German submarine attack off the Irish coast. His son, also Frederick, who was on the ship as the second mate, took command and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Parslow Snr was the first member of the mercantile marine to be awarded the VC in WW1.

Note: 'Mercantile Marine' is the term used until after WW1 for what we now know as the Merchant Navy.

We'd understood that the VC was only awarded to military personnel, and the Merchant Navy is not part of the military. Our colleague, Andrew Behan found enlightenment at the National Army Museum:

"Since the inception of the VC, there have been 14 further Royal Warrants that have changed the original terms and conditions set out for awards. Recognising the bravery of civilian volunteers during the Indian Mutiny (1857-59), an 1858 warrant extended the eligibility of the VC to ‘non-military persons’ serving with the forces. Seven civilians have been awarded the VC: Thomas Kavanagh (1857); William Fraser McDonell (1857); Ross Lowis Mangles of the Bengal Civil Service (1857); George Bell Chicken, a civilian volunteer with the Indian Naval Brigade (1858); the Reverend James Adams of the Bengal Ecclesiastical Department (1879) and Captains Frederick Parslow and Archibald Smith of the Mercantile Marine (1915-17). The latter two recipients were posthumously commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve to make them eligible for the VC."

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Frederick Parslow, VC

Commemorated ati

Frederick Parslow VC

More information about the VC plaque project at Centenary News. 

Read More

Other Subjects

Major Henry Percy

Major Henry Percy

Of the 14th Light Dragoons. Brought the 'Waterloo Dispatch', news of the victory at the Battle of Waterloo, to London. Like many others he had gone, 15 June 1815, straight from the Duchess of Richm...

Person, Armed Forces

2 memorials
PC Gary Toms

PC Gary Toms

From Police Memorial Trust: "PC Gary Toms and a colleague were in a marked police car in Ashlin Road, Stratford when they began to follow a car that had been reported as being used in a burglary in...

Person, Armed Forces, Tragedy

1 memorial
W. M. Witherick

W. M. Witherick

Student of Trinity College of Music, killed in WW1.

Person, Armed Forces, Music / songs

War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Gregory Augustus Daymond

Gregory Augustus Daymond

Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Augustus Daymond was born on 25 November 1920 in Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana, USA. From the American Air Museum in Britain website we learn that he grew up in Ne...

Person, Armed Forces, Cinema, USA

War served, WW2
1 memorial