Harry Smith Parkes
| Sir Harry Smith Parkes | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General of the United Kingdom to Japan | |
|
In office 1865–1883 |
|
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Preceded by | Sir Rutherford Alcock |
| Succeeded by | Sir Francis Richard Plunkett |
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General of the United Kingdom to China | |
|
In office 28 September 1883 – 22 March 1885 |
|
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Preceded by | Thomas George Grosvenor |
| Succeeded by | Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor |
| Minister to Korea | |
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In office 1884–1885 |
|
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Preceded by | none |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Walsham |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
24 February 1828 Birchill Hall, Bloxwich, Staffordshire, England |
| Died | 22 March 1885 (aged 57) Peking (Beijing), China |
Sir Harry Smith Parkes (24 February 1828 – 22 March 1885) GCMG, KCB was a British diplomat who served as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul General of the United Kingdom to the Empire of Japan from 1865–83 and the Chinese Qing Empire from 1883–85, and Minister to Korea in 1884. Parkes Street in Kowloon, Hong Kong is named after him.
Parkes was born in Birchill Hall in the parish of Bloxwich in Staffordshire, England. His father, Harry Parkes, was the founder of Parkes, Otway & Co., ironmasters. His mother died when he was four, while his father was killed in a carriage accident in the following year. He lived with his uncle, a retired naval officer, at Birmingham and was educated at a boarding school in Balsall Heath before entering King Edward's Grammar School in May 1838.
In June 1841, Parkes sailed to China to live with his cousin, Mary Wanstall, who was also the wife of the German missionary Karl Gützlaff. Upon arriving in Macau in October 1841, he prepared for employment in the office of John Robert Morrison, a translator of Sir Henry Pottinger, who was then the British envoy and plenipotentiary and superintendent of British trade in China. Around the time, the First Opium War (1839–42) was being fought between the British and the Qing Empire of China.
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