Wilfred Parker was born in Wellington in 1905 and in 1910 went with his widowed mother and a younger brother to Paeroa where his mother married Mr J. Capill.

After attending the Paeroa Dist. High School, Wilfred entered the Public Service in Wellington. Later he went to St.John's College and Auckland University, graduating Master of Arts and obtaining his Licentiate in Theology. He was ordained at St.Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington in 1928 and remained there as a curate until he went to Great Britain in 1931.

On the day of the Napier Earthquake he was visiting the Budd family, previously of Paeroa, then in Hawkes Bay, and as his injuries were slight he took a prominent part in rescue work.

Subsequently, he was at Leeds for 15 months and then went to Hove in 1933. In 1935 he entered the Royal Navy; after being stationed for a short time at Chatham was sent to the China station. He came to N.Z. on furlough in 1938, returned to England, and was at a Fleet Air Arm Station when War was declared. He was drafted to the "Prince of Wales" when she was commissioned in May 1941.

Extract from ATLANTIC MEETING by H.V. MORTON. page 70

 (Re May 24th - EMPIRE DAY - 1941.)They (men from H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES) described to me what they could remember of their own feelings as the ship went into action with the BISMARCK....... They were below decks at their duties or enclosed in steel turrets dependent for information upon the Captain's broadcasts from the bridge.

"We were waiting the order to fire," said one young man. "We knew it would come at any moment and we were ready. Then, instead of the order, we heard the Padre reading a Prayer. But we got the order to fire soon after."

Wilfred went down with the Prince of Wales when it was sunk at the hands of Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941. He was tending wounded Sailors in the ship's chapel and would not leave them.

[AWMM, Ohinemuri Journal ]