British War Medal 1914-20: Temporary Sergeant Major Michael Robert Parfitt, 5th Field Artillery Brigade, AIF

British War Medal 1914-20. Impressed around edge with recipient's details

Born in Hammersmith, London, England in 1878, Michael Robert 'Mick' Parfitt was educated at the Boys School at Farningham in Kent. He joined the Royal Marine Light Infantry (Plymouth Division) in February 1898, serving with them until 1910. After a brief period of employment as a butler at Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District, he emigrated to Australia in 1913, where he joined his sister, Mrs Harriet Comben in the Bombala district of southern New South Wales. He was employed as a motor driver when he enlisted in the AIF on 6 October 1915.

After initial training Parfitt was posted as a gunner, service number 11523, to the 3rd Reinforcements to the 5th Artillery Brigade. He sailed from Sydney on 15 January 1916, aboard RMS Osterley. In Egypt Parfitt was briefly transferred to the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Column before being posted to the 105th Howitzer Battery, then part of the 22nd Howitzer Brigade. The battery arrived in France for service on the Western Front on 25 March. In May it was transferred to the 5th Field Artillery Brigade. Parfitt had by now been promoted corporal, and had served as temporary sergeant major between 15 March and 30 April 1916, but reverted to the rank of gunner, at his own request, in July 1916.

Michael Parfitt was killed on 2 February 1917 while his battery were engaged near Martinpuich, opposite the Contalmaison front. Parfitt had just fired his 'F' gun when a German shell hit his gun pit, killing two men - Parfitt and Gunner Walter Tatham outright - and wounding two others, of whom Gunner Wilfred Westwood died later that day. A witness later wrote that Parfitt, who was 38 when he died, 'was the most popular man in the Battery and one of the best soldiers I have ever met.'

Parfitt is buried in the Martinpuich British Cemetery. Neither of his parents were alive at the time of his death. Although he had an elder brother living in England who would normally have received his personal effects, medals and next of kin plaque, he agreed that his sister in Australia, Mrs Comben, had been closest to her brother, should receive all the items.