Surgeon-Major Parke, of the E min Relief Expedition—one of the
few men who have gone through the hardships and horrors of an African expedition and yet retained their natural gentleness—died suddenly last Sunday night" when on a visit to the Duke of St. Albans at Alt-na-Craig. Mr. Stanley speaks of him with the strongest affection throughout his " Darkest Africa." He is there described as the " combina- tion of sweetness and simplicity" and "as tenderness itself." "At Abu Klea our doctor was great; the wounded had cause to bless him ; on the green-sward of Kavalli, daily ministering to these suffering Blacks, unknowing and unheeding whether any regarded him, our doctor was greater still." It will be remembered that Surgeon Parke was attached to the Desert Column, and was present at all the desperate fighting in the Nile Bend. That Surgeon Parke contrived to charm every one who came in contact with him, was in no small measure due to his wonderful modesty of manner. Though he was fond of talking about his adventures, and talked well, he never incurred the slightest suspicion of swagger.
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