Papers of Maurice Cyril Parsons and May Gladys Parsons nee Bigmore

A collection of letters, greetings cards and postcards exchanged between Maurice Cyril Parsons and May Gladys Parsons née Bigmore from 1913 to 1920. There are also testimonials, official documents and photographs relating to Parson’s career as a marine engineer, employed on vessels of the Argentine Steam Navigation Company and later the Atlantic Transport Line.

Administrative / biographical background
Maurice Cyril Parsons was born at Luton, Bedfordshire, in 1892. He served an apprenticeship with the local marine engineering firm of Vauxhall and West Hydraulic. He first went to sea as an engineer on the screw steamer LA BLANCA (1906), in the River Plate trade, between 1912 and 1914. During the First World War and afterwards, he was employed on vessels of the Atlantic Transport Line, including the MACKINAW ex BRITISH CROWN (1891), MINNEAPOLIS (1900), MAHOPAC ex MINNESOTA (1887) and MISSISSIPPI (1914). Parsons qualified as First Class Engineer (certificate number 56092) in 1917. In that year he also married May Gladys Bigmore (1894-1978). Parsons later worked as an engineer surveyor, initially for the London Guarantee & Accident Company in the Midlands, and later for the Pheonix Assurance Company in Hampshire. He died at Southampton in 1981.