Lt Rt Hon Henry Bligh Fortesque Parnell was killed on this day in 1914
Henry Parnell, 5th Baron Congleton, the eldest son of the late Maj-Gen Henry Parnell, the 4th Baron Congleton was a junior officer on the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards when he was killed aged 24 on 10 November 1914.
Parnell was the first member of the House of Peers to be killed in the Great War. He succeeded his father in 1906. He was born on the 6th September, 1890, at Annerville, Clonmel, when his father was in command of that District. He was also a grandson of a naval officer who had five sons in the Army and Navy.
Henry was also related to the poet Thomas Parnell (1679 – 1718), and was a distant cousin of Charles Stewart Parnell, the famous Irish politician.
He was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford, where he took very good second class Honours for History and was also Master of the New College and Magdalen Beagles. Henry joined the Grenadier Guards as a University candidate in 1912 and was promoted Lieutenant in March, 1913.
Lord Congleton was mentioned in Sir John French's Despatch of the 14th January, 1915 for gallant conduct and skilful handling of his platoon against terrific odds on the 6th November, 1914, thereby saving the British line at that point.
He was killed in action near Ypres on the 10th November, 1914 and was buried in Zillebeke Churchyard.
Lord Congleton was a gifted and many-sided man: a keen sportsman, playing polo and was a good shot (small and big game). As a traveller, he had hoped to go with Stackhouse to the Antarctic.
Lord Congleton was not married, and his brother the Hon. J. B. I. Parnell a Lieutenant in the Navy succeeds him in the title.