JNW Parish – the crashed airman at Hawarden

16/05/2026

JNW Parish – the crashed airman at Hawarden

One cold and snowy January whilst wandering around the local churchyard at Hawarden in North Wales looking for interesting graves, I came upon the grave of J.N.W. Parish. It caught my eye and I read the inscription, which stated:

Sub-Lieutenant (A)

J.N.W. Parish R.N. (V.R.)

H.M.S. Heron

17^th May 1941 Age 20

His brother David

Pilot Officer R.A.F. (V.R.)

Was lost on operations

from Malta

11^th February 1942 Age 27

H.M.S. Heron rang a bell and I wasn’t sure why and so, when I got home, I looked it up. I realised why it had rung that bell. It wasn’t a ship but the designation for R.N.A.S. Yeovilton and I had grown up just a few miles from it. I had friends who had been based there and neighbours who worked there and so I felt a real connection to J.N.W. Parish and wanted to learn more about him. I felt a sense of him belonging to my past.

Gravestone of John Neville Woodbine Parish

John Neville Woodbine Parish is buried in the area of the churchyard where the Glynne and Gladstone families are interred and it turned out that he was the Great Grandson of William Ewart Gladstone who had been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom four times during his sixty-year Parliamentary career.

Just beyond the wall of the churchyard, and not far from the grave, is the Gladstone Library. A world-famous residential library endowed by William Ewart Gladstone in 1889 and which is still a place where you can stay and study.

John Neville Woodbine Parish was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis W. Parish DSO, MC and Dorothy Parish (nee Drew). Dorothy Catherine Mary Drew was the daughter of Reverend Harry Drew and Mary Gladstone (daughter of William Gladstone). Sadly, John would not have known his father, as Francis W. Parish died from wounds he received during World War One when John was just a baby.

John had been born in Burton Manor, Burton, Cheshire on the 28^th November, 1920 and schooled at West Downs School, Winchester and Rugby. In 1939 he joined Oxford Christ Church University but was called up a year later and joined the Fleet Air Arm wing of the Royal Navy in 1940.

The war record regarding John Neville Woodbine Parish gives the following details. He was Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant (A) with 759 Squadron of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve based at H.M.S Heron near Yeovil in Somerset. He flew a Sea Hurricane designation P5203. He died in a flying accident on the 17^th May 1941 when he crashed into the River Parrett near Langport, Somerset aged 20 years. He had gained his wings in January of 1941. Apparently 759 squadron was the fighter training squadron of the Fleet Air Arm and so it would seem that John was still in training when he crashed his Sea Hurricane into the River Parrett. I knew this area well as I had attended a school in Langport and crossed the bridge here frequently on the school bus. I have wondered where exactly he crashed but have so far been unsuccessful in tracking this information down.

View of River Parrett at Langport in Somerset

Sadly, his older brother David is also commemorated on his gravestone as he was lost in 1942 on operations from Malta with the Royal Air Force and their mother, known as Dossie, is buried alongside them.

John and David are commemorated on the Hawarden War Memorial located just in front of Gladstone’s Library.

Some of the names on the Hawarden War Memorial

These were terribly tragic events for his mother who had also lost her husband in 1921. She was in company with so many others at the time who also lost loved ones. I can’t help but wonder why we never seem to learn any lessons from history.

On the 17^th May this year, which is the 85^th anniversary of John’s death, I shall visit his grave and place flowers and think of him and all those who gave so much.