PARKES, Charles Henry. b. 1816; clerk in election office of house of commons; clerk to Dyson and co., parliamentary agents 24 Parliament st. London, partner in the firm; a director of the Eastern counties’ railway 1869, deputy chairman Aug. 1873, chairman Nov. 1874 to July 1893, greatly improved the line, increased the traffic, built and then enlarged Liverpool station at a cost of £3,000,000, and developed the continental traffic by a route from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, the quays at Harwich are called after him, the main line was renamed the Great Eastern 1862, was voted sum of £2,000 on retirement from the chairmanship. d. Netherfield, Weybridge 9 May 1895. bur. Weybridge cemetery 14 May. Times 17 May 1895 p. 10; I.L.N. 25 May 1895 p. 638 portrait.
PARKES, Edmund Alexander (son of Wm. Parkes of the Marble-yard, Warwick). b. Bloxham, Oxfordshire 29 March 1819, or Warwick 30 March 1819; educ. Christ’s hospital, and Univ. coll. and hospital; M.B. London 1841, M.D. 1846; M.R.C.S. 1840; assistant surgeon to 84 foot April 1842, served in Madras and Moulmein 1842–5, retired Sept. 1845; practised in London 1845; special professor of clinical medicine at Univ. college 1849–60, emeritus professor 1860; physician to Univ. coll. hospital 1849; edited British and foreign medico-chirurgical review 1852–5; sent to Turkey to select a site for and organize and superintend a large civil hospital, he selected Renkioi on the Asiatic bank of the Dardanelles and remained there till 1856; professor of hygiene in army medical school at Fort Pitt, Chatham 27 March 1860, the school was transferred to the royal Victoria hospital, Netley 1863; invented the new military valise which displaced the old knapsack; the founder of the science of modern hygiene; wrote an annual review of the progress of hygiene in the army medical department blue-book 1861–75; crown member of general medical council 17 Nov. 1863 to death; F.R.S. 6 June 1861, member of council; member of senate of univ. of London 1871 to death; author of Remarks on the dysentery and hepatitis of India 1846; Researches into Asiatic or algide cholera 1847; On self-training by the medical student 1856; The composition of the urine in health and disease 1860; A manual of practical hygiene for use in the army 1864, 8 ed. 1891; A scheme of medical tuition 1868; On the issue of spirit ration during the Ashanti campaign 1875. d. Sydney cottage, Bitterne, near Southampton 15 March 1876. bur. Solihull, near Birmingham, bust at Univ. coll. London. Good Words (1879) 553–8; Medical times and gazette i 348–9 (1876); I.L.N. lxviii 325, 326 (1876) portrait; Saturday Review 2 June 1883 p. 687.
Note.—The Parkes museum of hygiene was instituted 1876 at University college, London, in 1882 it was incorporated and removed to Margaret st. Cavendish sq. and opened by the duke of Albany 26 May 1883, it was incorporated with the Sanitary institute of Great Britain Aug. 1888. In Dec. 1894 Hermann Weber, M.D., M.R.C.P, gave the royal college of physicians the sum of £2,500 in trust for the purpose of founding a prize to be called the Weber-Parkes prize to be given at intervals for the best essay in tubercular consumption.
PARKES, George. b. 1827; a barber in Old Bridge court, Cannon row, Westminster 1845; had a fine baritone voice, sang at Vauxhall and Cremorne gardens and the Bower saloon, Stangate st.; lessee with Wm. Tanner of the Alhambra music hall, Shoreditch 1871–5, and of the Raglan music hall, Southwark; in partnership with Wm. Tanner, lessee of the Elephant and Castle theatre 1880, and alone 1881–3, produced Walter Burnot’s burlesque of The German silver king 24 March 1883; proprietor of Richardson’s theatre at the World’s fair at the Agricultural hall, Islington Dec. 1883 to Feb. 1884; generally known as Baron Parkes. d. 29 Hercules road, Lambeth, London 16 Oct. 1895. bur. Brompton cemet. 21 Oct.
PARKES, Sir Harry Smith (youngest child of Harry Parkes of Walsall, ironmaster, d. 1833). b. Birchill’s hall, Bloxwich, near Walsall 24 Feb. 1828; educ. Birmingham gr. sch. 1838–41; joined his sisters in China 1841; attached to sir Henry Pottinger’s suit 1842; interpreter at Foo-chow March 1845 to Aug. 1846; interpreter at Shanghai Aug. 1846 to 1850; interpreter at Canton 21 Nov. 1851; consul at Amoy 10 Aug. 1854; secretary to special mission to Siam March 1855, first treaty signed 18 April 1855; acting-consul at Canton June 1856, city stormed by sir Michael Seymour, who entered it with Parkes 29 Oct. 1856, Canton was bombarded 28 Dec. 1857, after which Parkes tracked and arrested commissioner Yeh 5 Jany. 1858, who was transported to Calcutta; British comr. of the allied commission at Canton 9 Jany. 1858; attached as joint Chinese secretary to earl of Elgin’s special embassy in China 1860 to Feb. 1861; accompanied vice-admiral Hope when he advanced upon Tien-tsin 23 Aug. 1860; taken prisoner by the Chinese at Tungchow 18 Sept. 1860, released 8 Oct.; envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary and consul-general in Japan 28 March 1865, obtained the ratification of the treaties of 1858 by the Mikado 24 Nov. 1865, left Japan Aug. 1883; minister plenipotentiary in China July 1883; concluded a treaty with the Korean government Nov. 1883; minister plenipotentiary to king of Korea 7 March 1884; C.B. 6 Dec. 1859, K.C.B. 19 May 1862. d. Peking 22 March 1885. bur. Whitchurch 26 June, statue at Shanghai unveiled by duke of Connaught April 1890, memorial bust by T. Brock, R.A. unveiled in St. Paul’s cathedral 1887. S. Lane-Poole and F. V. Dickins’s Life of sir Harry Parkes, 2 vols. (1894) portrait; D. C. Boulger’s History of China iii 250 etc., 827 (1884); Illust. times 19 Jany. 1861 p. 31 portrait; I.L.N. xxxvii 587 (1860) portrait; Times 23 March 1885 p. 7.
PARKES, Joseph (younger son of John Parkes, manufacturer). b. Warwick 22 Jany. 1796; articled to a solicitor in London 1817–22; practised as a solicitor in Birmingham 1822–33; a member of Birmingham political union 10 May 1832, made active preparations for an armed rebellion; secretary of the commission on municipal corporations 1833; parliamentary solicitor at 21 Great George st. Westminster 1833–47; taxing master to court of exchequer Nov. 1847 to death; secretary to commission for inquiry into public charities 1840; author of A history of the court of chancery 1828; author with Herman Merivale of Memoirs of sir Philip Francis, K.C.B., with correspondence and journals, 2 vols. 1867. d. 17 Wimpole st. London 11 Aug. 1865. bur. Kensal Green cemet. 17 Aug. Law mag. and law review xx 174 (1865).
PARKES, Josiah (brother of the preceding). b. Warwick 27 Feb. 1793; worked in his father’s mill at Warwick 1810–20; carried out near Woolwich a new process for refining salt; A.I.C.E. 11 March 1823, M.I.C.E. 26 Dec. 1837; carried on business at Puteaux-sur-Seine 1825–30; fought on the popular side in the revolution 1830, after which he returned to England; a land drainer 1830–54, employed 1,000 men; drained part of Chat Moss, Lancs. for Mr. Heathcote of Tiverton, invented the deep drainage system of not less than four feet; in 1846 sir Robert Peel advanced four millions to be spent in draining on the Parkesian principle; drained the fortifications at Yaverland and Warden Point, Isle of Wight for the war office 1862–9; author of Lecture on draining 1846; Essay on the philosophy and art of land drainage 1848; Fallacies on land drainage exposed 1851. d. Freshwater, Isle of Wight 16 Aug. 1871. Min. of proc. of Instit. of C.E. xxxiii 231–6 (1872).
PARKES, William. b. Gloucester 6 Oct. 1822; in the office of James Walker, C.E. 1845; resident engineer at the Alderney harbour works 1847–9; a civil engineer in Parliament st. and then at 23 Abingdon st. London from 1849; connected with the lake Fucino, Italy, draining works 1853; reported on Kurrachee, India, harbour 1854, and again in 1868, the breakwater, the first constructed on the sloping-block system, completed 1873; designed and erected lighthouses in the Red sea 1860; at Madras in 1873 and 1876 in connection with the harbour works, which were destroyed by a cyclone in 1882; A.I.C.E. 3 Feb. 1849, M.I.C.E. 17 April 1860. d. 8 Grove road, Surbiton 1889. Min. of proc. of Instit. of C.E. xcvi 328–30 (1889).
PARKIN, George Lewis (son of George Patey Parkin of Woolwich). b. 30 Sept. 1818; educ. Merchant Taylors’ school 1829; admitted solicitor 1841; partner with H. W. Woodhouse many years; partner with Frederick John Pagden, retired 1884; one of the Antients and subsequently principal of Barnard’s inn; a governor of Christ’s hospital; an early member of the Solicitors’ Benevolent institution, d. 22 Park lane, London 23 April 1885. Solicitors’ Journal 2 May 1885 p. 442.
PARKINS, William. b. Great Berkhampstead, Herts.; a manufacturing stationer in Hanway st. London about 1842; introduced cheap paper and envelopes; partner with Henry Gotto at 25 Oxford st. 1851 to death, having a very large establishment of fancy goods, especially of articles for presents, employed nearly 500 people; published Parkins and Co.’s Almanack and price list 1850 etc.; Parkins and Gotto’s Rent book 1858; Parkins and Gotto’s Annual Diary 1861 etc. d. 43 Abbey road, St. John’s Wood, London 19 Sept. 1872. bur. Kensal Green cemetery 25 Sept. Colburn’s New monthly mag. cxx 494–8 (1881); Puseley’s Companies (1858) 167.