Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Captain F. C. Parsons, British Red Cross Society and Serbian Relief Fund, late Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles

British War and Victory Medals (F. C. Parsons. B.R.C. & St. J.J.); Delhi Durbar 1911, silver, unnamed as issued; Indian Volunteer Forces Officers’ Decoration, G.V.R., reverse inscribed (Captain F. C. Parsons S.P. Mtd Rfls.) complete with top suspension brooch; Serbia, Kingdom, Order of St Sava, Fourth Class breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in fitted case of issue; together with gilt medal for Serbo-Turkish War of 1912, this last unconfirmed, extremely fine (6) £500-£700

Francis Cotton Parsons was born on 29 November 1867, the second son of William Baldock Parsons, of Aylmer Hall, King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Educated at Waterbeach, Cambridge and Amersham Hall School, Reading and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was appointed to the Indian Civil Service in 1886.

Parsons subsequently served in Madras as Assistant Collector and Magistrate, in 1894 as Special Settlement Officer, in 1897 as Head Assistant Collector and Magistrate, the following year as Special Settlement Officer in Malabar, in 1901 Head Assistant Collector in South Canara, in 1902 Sub-Collector and Joint Magistrate, in 1904 Collector and Magistrate, becoming a District and Sessions Judge during 1907-08. He was later an Assistant Magistrate and Assistant to the Governor of Vizagapatam and retired in August 1914.

He is shown in 1912 as being on ‘Leave ex-India 2 yrs’. It is not known what he did in this period but it is possible that he is entitled to the Serbian Medal for the war with Turkey. He had, meanwhile, in December 1905, been appointed a Captain in the Southern Provinces Mounted Rifles.

With the outbreak of war, Parsons served with the British Red Cross Society and the Serbian Relief Fund, being awarded the Order of St Sava, 4th Class (FO372/1162 confirms.) Parsons is confirmed as being out there before the retreat and was the administrator with the Second Farmers unit.

He died at Lausanne on 23 December 1924.

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