In January 1916 while at Oxford he volunteered for army service, and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. After training at Rugeley he transferred to the 17th battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps.[1] He served at the Somme in France, and in November 1916 moved with his battalion to the Ypres Salient in Flanders. He was killed on 6 May 1917, by shellfire on the Yser Canal section.[2]
He had written poetry before the war, and his experiences at the Somme and in Flanders led to his returning to poetry. After his death, In Memoriam: Harold Parry was published, letters and poems of Parry compiled by Geoffrey Dennis.[1] Some of his poems were published in the anthology Songs from the Heart of England (1920), edited by Alfred Moss and with a foreword by Jerome K. Jerome.[1][3]
