Thomas Parke (Royal Marines officer)


Thomas Adams Parke, was a career officer in the Royal Marines. Associated with the Royal Marine Artillery of the nineteenth century Royal Marines; he was for many years commandant of that corps. Toward the end of his long and distinguished service, he led the Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines as Colonel Commandant.

Personal life

Thomas Adams Parke was born in the civil parish of Fawley, Hampshire, on 13 October 1780, the son of Thomas Parke and his wife Mary. He married Eliza Maskal at Alverstoke, Hampshire on 9 November 1805. Upon his retirement, he lived in Portsmouth with his wife and one of their daughters, Mary Anne. One of his sons, Henry William Parke, was commissioned in the Royal Marine Artillery in 1822 and after spending almost forty years in the service retired with the rank of major general on full pay in 1859. Another son, Hamnett Parke, was a captain in the Royal Marine Artillery. "General Thomas Adams Parke, C.B., of the Royal Marines" died "at his residence, Hythe, near Southampton" on 3 September 1858. He was then 77 years old.

Service

He served in the Napoleonic Wars; his first notable action was the Battle of Camperdown aboard HMS Triumph.
In 1812, he commanded two companies of artillery which supported the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Royal Marines in Spain. He was the Marine Artillery brigade commander when this force redeployed to North America in 1813 to fight in the United States, with a rocket detachment supplementing his original two companies.

Promotions, awards, and titles