▶Date of birth: 3 September 1867         Place of birth: Norwich, Norfolk

▶Father:  John Parker     Mother: Maria Heath Vlieland

▶Spouse(s):  Anne Isabel Grieve   Date(s) of marriage:  4 October 1899     Place(s) of marriage: Mombasa, East Africa [?]

▶Occupation: Schoolmaster/Clergyman

▶Lifestory: William was the second son of John Parker, corn and coal merchant, of Norwich, and his wife Maria Heath Vlieland. His first career was as a schoolmaster, and by 1889 he was working as a Master at the Middle-class School at Barnstaple in Devon; in the same year he was elected a Member of the Geological Society of Glasgow.

But he decided to train as a missionary and to be ordained, and so attended the Church Missionary College, Islington from 1894. Between 1896 and 1900 he worked as a missionary at Mombasa in East Africa. In 1899 he married Anne Isabel Grieve, probably in Mombasa; they had two sons and a daughter. He returned to England and was ordained Deacon (London) in 1901. Between 1901 and 1903 he went out again with the Church Missionary Society as a missionary to Mombasa, where he remained until transferred to Mamboya in Tanzania 1903-5.

When he returned to Britain he was licensed Curate of St Mary Coslany with St Martin at Oak, Norwich 1906-8; he was ordained Priest (Norwich) in 1907, and then Curate of Hardingham 1908-10. In the latter year he moved as Curate to St John the Baptist, Harborne 1910-11 before serving as Curate of Holy Trinity, Cheltenham 1911-12. While he and his family were in Cheltenham they lived at 3 Wellington Square, Pittville. In 1912 he was presented with the vicarage of Newnham, Hertfordshire 1912-21, and with the rectory of Caldecote, Hertfordshire over the same period.