Biography:
John Atherton Parnell-Parnell was born 1 March 1895, the only son of the Thomas Parnell-Parnell, J.P., and of Edith Mary Parnell-Parnell of Wickselme, Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
He came to Winchester College from Cordwalles School in September 1908 and was in C House, Du Boulay's. We know very little about his time at Winchester other than that he took part in Junior Steeplechase in 1909. John left Winchester in the summer of 1913 and went up to Magdalen College, Oxford later that year.
When war broke out he proceeded on the nomination of the President of Magdalen to RMC Sandhurst, and obtained a Commission in the Gloucestershire Regiment in December 1914. He went to France in October 1915.
John fell on the evening of 8 September 1916 whilst leading his platoon in an attack on High Wood, and was buried at Quarry Cemetery near Bazentin-le-Petit, although his body was subsequently moved to the Flatiron Copse Cemetery.
He had won much commendation from his superiors for acts of gallantry shortly before his death. He is commemorated, along with his father, by a memorial plaque in St Mary's Church, Berkeley.