Birkenhead survivors

Mrs. Marian Parkinson (nee Darkin)

MRS MARIAN PARKINSON nee DARKIN was  going out with her mother to join her father Drum-Major John Robert Darkin of The Queens Regimen then serving in South Africa..  Although not quite four years of age at the time, in later life she had vivid recall of the time of the tragedy.  On the fiftieth anniversary of the wreck she wrote to Lieut Colonel William MacKay of the Queens  ....

I was three years and eight months old at the time of the wreck. There was only my mother and myself of our family on board the Birkenhead; my mother was on the way to join my father. I can remember quite well my mother taking me in her arms on deck in our night clothes and giving me to a cabin boy to hold whilst she went again down below to fetch a cloak, and they lowered me into the boat.  When she got back she could not find me and all the boats had pushed off.  Two officers swung mother from the side of the vessel as she was sinking and she just caught the side of the boat and fell amongst the people. If she had fallen the other way  they must have left her as the boat was being drawn by the sinking vassal. We were out in the boat until one o`clock next day, a small vessel picked us up and gave us some biscuits and water and took us to Cape Town.  We were not long before we started again and went up country all through the Kaffir War.  I was born in The Queens and so were my brothers..  My father was discharged when I was 12 years old.  I was sorry when he left the Army I liked Military life the best.

Her mother died at Knaresborough in July 1863 at the early age of 36.  Marian Darkin married Mr George Parkinson on March 11 1886 and had a daughter Rose on September 11 1887.  Before her marriage she had been in the service of the Vicar of Beckingham (Nottinghamshire) for over 20 years.  The 1st Battalion of the Regiment  erected a memorial tribute to her in Beckingham Church on June 19 1905. It is inscribed ....

SACRED TO THE MEMORY
of
MRS MARIAN PARKINSON 
a survivor of the
BIRKENHEAD
wrecked off the Cape
26th Feby, 1852
under circumstances which
evoked the admiration of
all countries.
She was a daughter of
Drum-Major John R Darkin
of The Queen`s Regt.
and died on 17th November, 1904.
Erected by the Officers and all Ranks
1st Bn. The Queens Regt.

Engraved on the brass of the tablet above the inscription is a representation of the sinking troopship Birkenhead.

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