William Pardey

Bank: Parr's Bank

Place of work: St Helens branch

Died: 16 September 1916

William Leslie Pardey was born in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, in 1897, the elder son of Lewis Pardey, resident agent in Ashton-in-Makerfield for Lord Gerrard's Lancashire estates, and his wife Sarah Alice (née Aspinall). In about 1913 he went to work for Parr's Bank.

In July 1915 Pardey left his job at the bank's St Helens branch to join the army, initially in the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps. He was later commissioned into the South Lancashire Regiment. Second Lieutenant Pardey died in France on 16 September 1916, of wounds received in action three days earlier. He was 19 years old.

His obituary in the bank's staff magazine recalled that 'Pardey was one of the younger members [of the bank's staff] who had a keen desire from the first days of the war to do his share, but his age being against him he had to wait. On attaining his 18th birthday he joined the Officers Training Corps and later the 5th South Lancashire Regiment, and about midsummer [1916] was drafted to the Front...During his short service with the bank he had passed the Bankers' Institute Examinations (preliminary), and the prospect of a successful business life has thus unfortunately terminated'.