James Roland Walter Parker

James Roland Walter Parker CMG OBE (20 December 1919 – 17 November 2009) was the Governor of the Falkland Islands and High Commissioner for the British Antarctic Territory from 1976 to 1980.^[1]

Life

He was the son of Alexander Roland Parker of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, and in 1938 went to work at the Ministry of Labour. He served at the beginning of World War II in the 1st London Scottish, from March to October 1940. During that time he lost the lower part of his left leg.^[1][2]

At the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War, in 1967, Parker was in Enugu as deputy to the British High Commissioner David Hunt. On good terms with C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, he evaluated the situation quite differently from Hunt, who placed the blame for the outbreak of hostilities on Ojukwu's ambition.^[3] In August of that year, Akanu Ibiam renounced his British knighthood in a letter to Parker.^[4]

References

1. "Parker, James Roland Walter". Who's Who & Who Was Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. "He Now Wants to Fly". Western Daily Press. 2 December 1943. p. 2.
3. Kwarteng, Kwasi (15 August 2011). Ghosts of Empire: Britain's Legacies in the Modern World. A&C Black. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-7475-9941-8.
4. Heerten, Lasse (2017). The Biafran War and Postcolonial Humanitarianism: Spectacles of Suffering. Cambridge University Press. p. 87 note 19. doi:10.1017/9781316282243. ISBN 978-1-107-11180-6.