Early Life and Military Service
Parr was born in Dublin, Ireland as part of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy that had settled on the island during the 17th century and attended Trinity High School. At the age of 19 he joined the British Army's 20th Regiment of Foot as an ensign, and saw service in the War of the Austrian Succession.
A subaltern officer, he was with the Prince William, Duke of Cumberland and his army as it marched through Scotland against Charles Stuart's Jacobite Uprising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
In 1755 he became adjutant to James Wolfe, the colonel of the 20th Regiment of Foot. In 1759, during the Seven Years' War he was wounded at the Battle of Minden and spent six months in hospital. He was then stationed at Gibraltar for six years and purchased the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1776, he resigned his regiment and, in 1788 he received a sinecure as a major at the Tower of London.
Read more about this topic: John Parr (governor)
Famous quotes containing the words early, life, military and/or service:
“Early education can only promise to help make the third and fourth and fifth years of life good ones. It cannot insure without fail that any tomorrow will be successful. Nothing “fixes” a child for life, no matter what happens next. But exciting, pleasing early experiences are seldom sloughed off. They go with the child, on into first grade, on into the child’s long life ahead.”
—James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)
“Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others—first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one’s own interests and desires. Carried to its “perfection,” it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)
“In politics, it seems, retreat is honorable if dictated by military considerations and shameful if even suggested for ethical reasons.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“You had to face your ends when young
‘Twas wine or women, or some curse
But never made a poorer song
That you might have a heavier purse,
Nor gave loud service to a cause
That you might have a troop of friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)