Engineer Rear-Admiral W. R. Parnall (1877-1954)
1954 Obituary [1]
ENGINEERS and engineer officers of the Navy will have learned with regret of the death of Engineer Rear-Admiral W. R. Parnall, C.B., C.B.E., which occurred on Tuesday of last week, in his seventy-seventh year.
Admiral Parnall, who was born on June 13, 1877, entered the Navy as probationer assistant engineer in 1897, after completing five years at college, and served in H.M. ships "Media," "Rodney" and "Thunderer."
From 1900 to 1914 he carried out the duties of junior engineer officer in a number of naval ships, including the "St. George," "Prince of Wales" and "Gurkha," and also spent a year at the Admiralty, and three years, from 1906 to 1909, at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
He was promoted to commander in 1914 and served throughout the first world war with the Grand Fleet; he was chief engineer in the battleship "Erin" from 1914 to 1916, when he transferred to the "Queen Elizabeth" and was present at the battle of Jutland.
After the war Admiral Parnall was chief engineer on board the cruiser "Southampton," the flagship of the South American station, and in 1921 he returned to England to join the staff of the engineer-in-chief.
Two years later he became assistant engineer-in-chief and in 1927 he was appointed deputy engineer-in-chief, a post which he continued to hold until his retirement in 1930.
He became associated with Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, Ltd., in 1935 and acted as that company's London representative until the time of his death, except from 1939 to 1944, when he returned to the engineering branch of the Admiralty.
Rear-Admiral Parnall was made a Companion of the Bath in 1927 and was awarded the C.B.E. for his services during the second world war.