Perhaps one of the most evocative images of the Titanic disaster is that of the young newsboy outside the White Star Line offices at Oceanic House in Cockspur Street, London, S.W., holding an Evening News poster announcing "Titanic Disaster Great Loss of Life."
That boy was Ned Parfett, and his short life was no less spectacular, and his death just as tragic, as that of the Titanic. Six and a half years after this poignant photograph was taken, Ned was killed during a German bombardment while serving with the British army in France, just days before the Armistice. He was 22.
According to his great-nephew Dominic Walsh, young Ned enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1916, first serving as a dispatch rider before reassignment to reconnaissance duties. Youth did not prevent bravery; he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Military Medal for his gallant conduct during a series of missions at the front.
Ned was one of four brothers from Cornwall Road, Waterloo, to enlist "for King and country." One brother served in the disastrous Dardanelles campaign of 1915, surviving to become part of the occupation army in defeated Germany. Another brother served in the bloody battle of the Somme in 1916, only to be wounded and gassed at the third battle of Ypres in Belgium. The third brother also survived. Only Ned failed to see out the war.
He died on 29 October 1918, less than two weeks before the end of the war. Ned was killed near Valenciennes when a shell landed on the quartermaster's stores, just as he was collecting some clothes before going on leave.
After his death, the officer who recommended Ned for special recognition wrote to one of his brothers: "On many occasions, he accompanied me during severe shelling, and I always placed the greatest confidence in him."