On 17 January 2022, FindMyPast shared a 1921 census schedule on their social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter, which showed HRH Prince George –the son of George V and Queen Mary –aboard the Iron Duke in Malta.
On the final row of this census schedule is the name Jasper PARROTT, aged 19, who was serving in the Royal Navy on board the same ship as Prince George.
Jasper PARROTT was born on 3 June 1902 in Plymouth and had joined the Royal Navy as a Paymaster Cadet on 15 January 1920. His father, Jasper William Alfred PARROTT, had also served in the Royal Navy. He achieved the rank of Chief Engineer on 9 September 1899 and was an Engineer Commander by 1911. His grandfather, Jasper William PARROTT, was a clerk in the General Register Office in 1861 and a Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages at the time of the 1871 census. So you may come across his name in documents associated with your family history, even if you are not a descendant of this PARROTT family! His great-grandfather, yet another Jasper PARROTT, was born in Berry Pomeroy, Devon and served as a Whig MP for Totnes in the 1830s.
As for HRH Prince George, he too had a father with a naval career. George V served in the Royal Navy from 1877 until 1892, when the death of his older brother Albert Victor made him second in line to the throne and he left the Navy. It was Prince George’s elder brother, Albert Frederick Arthur George (‘Bertie’) who became George VI. After leaving the Navy, Prince George became a civil servant, working in the Foreign Office and Home Office, and became Duke of Kent in 1934. Rumours abounded about his personal life and one wonders what Jasper PARROTT may have known about his shipmate’s extra-curricular activities. After rejoining the Royal Navy in 1939, Prince George transferred to the RAF in 1940 and was killed in an air crash in Scotland in 1942.
Jasper PARROTT, meanwhile, was promoted to the rank of Paymaster Commander during WWII and was awarded an OBE in 1944. At his investiture in 1945 he received the OBE from King George VI, brother of his 1921 shipmate. He continued in a distinguished Royal Navy career and was awarded a CBE in 1956, having served as Deputy Judge Advocate of the Fleet.