早年

巴夏礼，1828年生于英格兰斯塔福德郡布洛克斯威奇（Bloxwich）。父亲哈里·巴克斯（Harry Parkes）是炼铁公司巴夏礼与奥特韦公司（Parkes, Otway & Co.）的创办人。他的母亲和父亲分别在他四岁和五岁时去世，父亲因交通意外而去世。亦因为如此，他成为了孤儿。而住在伯明翰的、曾是海军军官的伯父收留了他。他在Balsall Heath的一所寄宿学校中接受教育，后来在1838年5月，升读英皇爱德华文法学校（King Edward's Grammer School）。

中国

第一次鸦片战争

1841年6月，巴夏礼乘船航往中国，居住于表姐玛丽（Mary Wanstall Gützlaff）的住所中。1841年10月，巴夏礼抵达澳门，准备接替马儒翰的职位，担任英国驻华全权公使及商务总监砵甸乍爵士的翻译、秘书。在习得基础华语后，巴夏礼在1842年5月到香港与马儒翰会合。

此时，第一次鸦片战争爆发了。1842年6月13日，砵甸乍沿长江进攻，巴夏礼在远征中作为砵甸乍的随从。在7月21日，镇江被英军攻占。8月29日，在英军战舰康沃利斯号，中英双方签署了《南京条约》。根据条约，广州、厦门、福州、宁波和上海五个港口开放为通商口岸。

外交工作

在英军占领舟山后，郭士立被任命为地方知府。1842年9月开始，巴夏礼在舟山政府处任职。1843年8月，巴夏礼通过了英国领事馆在香港举办的中文水平测验，在9月被任命为福州的翻译。但是，在他赶到福州时发现他的职位已经被人代替了，就改任驻广领事、香港华人部助手。

1844年6月，他被任命为厦门的翻译。1845年3月，他和领事阿礼国一起前往福州，他担任翻译。10月4日，两人在福州受到清军掷石。1846年6月，他和阿礼国一起押运46,163英镑赔款。

1846年8月，阿礼国与巴夏礼被派往上海，巴夏礼再次担任翻译。1847年，他开始学习日文。1848年3月，他跟随一个副领事，与中方交涉，要求处罚在青浦袭击英国传教士的中国人。1848年4月9日，他被任命为上海的翻译。1850年至1851年间，他离开了中国，回到欧洲。1851年，他返华出任厦门的翻译。

1851年11月21日，他被任命为广州的翻译，1852年2月抵达广州任职。他在此代替宝宁出任领事。1853年8月又被暂时调职为广州副领事。

1854年，他被任命为厦门领事。1855年，他作为秘书，随宝宁往暹罗，缔结商业条约。这是暹罗第一次与西方国家缔结条约。5月18日，条约于曼谷签署，在条约签署后，他返回英格兰。他在7月1日抵达英格兰，并在7月9日获得维多利亚女王接见。在1855年后半年中，他都在帮助外交部处理中国、暹罗事务。

婚姻

在英格兰时，他在朋友家中遇到了范妮·米尔士小姐（Miss Fanny Plumer），她是第一位副大法官托马斯·米尔士爵士（Sir Thomas Plumer）的孙女。「她是一个美丽的女孩」，他在写给朋友的信中提到她，「高挑，匀称而优美，她肤色浓厚而柔和。她深棕色的眼睛充满智慧，说话又语重深长。她充满魅力，而家人都十分优秀。」经过六个星期的追求，他们在1856年元旦在伦敦小斯坦莫尔（Little Stanmore）的圣劳伦斯教堂（St. Lawrence's Church）成婚。次年1月9日，夫妇离开英格兰。

第二次鸦片战争

由于担任广州领事这个职位，他再次与钦差大臣、两广总督叶名琛打交道。他们之间的矛盾在不久后引发了第二次鸦片战争。

1856年10月8日，老闸船亚罗号进入珠江后被清水军官员登上。有消息指有几个海盗在英国的保护下登船，所以清军登船抓捕。12名华籍水手被捕，英国国旗被取下。巴夏礼以英国国旗被降下为由，对叶名琛表示抗议。叶名琛辩称亚罗号由中国人水手操纵，又为中国人拥有，而且当时并未升起英国国旗。巴夏礼将其视之为对条约权利的侵犯，向港督宝灵称英国国旗遭到侮辱。

叶名琛碍于颜面，拒绝道歉，只允释放9人。但遭巴夏礼拒绝。宝灵希望进一步扩大英国在广东的特权，将事件升级，引发战争，以移除在广州的贸易、外交障碍。

叶名琛拒绝让步后，皇家海军在10月29日轰破城墙，随后，巴夏礼与海军上将米高·西摩爵士一道进入叶名琛的衙门。但英国部队数量较少，不足以完全占领广州，唯有继续使用战舰、炮兵监视城市。在12月16日，中国部队在城外向欧洲聚居点开火，巴夏礼退到香港，并留了近一年。在这段时间里，他在议会内遭到了猛烈批评。

1857年11月，英国部队从香港来援。额尔金被任命驻华高级专员与全权代表，并与为一被害教士复仇的法军一道行动。巴夏礼加入到迈克尔·西摩爵士的部队中，并在12月12日对叶发出最后通牒。通牒过期后，在12月28日，广州遭到轰击。1858年1月5日，在部队攻入城内后，巴夏礼带一队水兵抓住了叶名琛。

1月9日，广东巡抚柏贵复职。他任怡和行伍崇曜与巴夏礼交涉。但柏贵只是西方人的一个傀儡，城市实际上为一委员会所统治。委员会由两个英国人组成，其中一个是巴夏礼。因为巴夏礼通晓华语，所以成为了领袖。委员会建立法庭，组建警察，并在2月10日开放广州港口。在天津条约签署后，广东官员对巴夏礼敌视依然，为取巴夏礼的首级而动员民兵，巨额悬赏。在1859年12月6日，巴夏礼获得了巴斯三等勋章。

8月21日，英军突袭大沽炮台，获得成功。巴夏礼参与了随后的劝降。8月24日，他到达天津后调度了联军部队，又与大臣进行了谈话。在发现大臣并非预期中的全权代表后，盟军继续向通州行进。

巴夏礼行先一步，在通州时，分别在9月14日与9月17日，两次利用通州政府，获准将军队前进至距城市5英里（8公里）处。9月18日，他离开了通州。在他发现了中国军队正在集结后，他准备回到通州通知委员会，却被清军俘虏。

巴夏礼、罗亨利、捺·辛格（Nal Singh）与两个法国士兵，被僧格林沁俘获。巴夏礼与罗亨利被送交刑部，关押于普通牢房，并饱受折磨。

9月29日，奉奕䜣之命，巴夏礼与尼斯被移到一座寺庙中关押，这里的环境较好。此举是为中方在中英谈判增加筹码。巴夏礼拒绝协助中方，也不愿为中方与额尔金交涉。在10月8日，七人获得释放。在众人遭释放后，皇帝要求处决他们的命令抵达，众人逃过一劫。英国谈判全权代表额尔金以「对外交人员实施虐待」为由，于10月18日下令放火烧圆明园，以作为对清廷的报复。

11月28日，他航往上海并在次年1月回到广州担任原职，处理接收九龙的事宜。根据天津条约，扬子江上的三个口岸开放。在1861年2月至4月，巴夏礼随海军中将何伯爵士沿江而行，在镇江、九江与汉口设立领事馆，并试图与南京的太平天国叛军立下协议。

1861年4月，他回到北京，并在6月到南京，准备与太平天国领导会面。在1861年10月21日，联军向清廷归还广东，因此巴夏礼不再担任专员。在11月，他前往上海，在同月内，再次与太平天国领袖会面，但这次会面的地点是在宁波。

巴夏礼向洪秀全提出协助太平天国叛军打败清朝,以事成后平分中国为条件，但洪秀全欲拥有全中国而拒绝巴夏礼。

1862年1月，他回到英格兰，他被囚一事使他变得知名。在1862年5月19日，他获得了巴斯爵级司令勋章。

1864年11月，他离开英格兰，在3月3日抵达上海，在1858年12月21日被任命为领事。

日本

1865年5月，正在前往扬子江港口的巴夏礼收到通知，他被任命为驻日特命全权公使与领事，而上一任特命全权公使与领事是阿礼国。

这个职位他担任了18年，在任内，他不断使用自己的影响力去支持日本的自由派。他向幕府的对手示好，所以对明治政府有影响力。因为他支持改革派，所以他成为了守旧派的目标，守旧派三次试图刺杀他。他鼓励低级成员深入研究日本：萨道义与威廉·乔治·阿斯顿（William George Aston）获益良多，后来成为日本学学者。但是，总体来说，为巴夏礼工作并不简单，他也不为日本官员、民众所知。

巴夏礼夫人因为在1867年攀登富士山而变得知名，这是第一次有非日本妇女攀登富士山。1879年11月，巴夏礼夫人在英格兰病逝，当时她正在为巴夏礼归来做准备。四日后，巴夏礼通过电报得到噩耗。

和纸汇报与收集

1869年，后来的首相，威廉·格莱斯顿，要求英国驻日代表团提交一份对和纸与制纸的报告。巴夏礼与他的团队在日本不同城镇作出了深入调查，出版了一份政府报告，「对日本制纸的报告」，收集了超过400张手制纸张。大部分收藏品现在在维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆的Paper Conservation Laboratory与邱园Economic Botany Collection展览。1879年，邱园向格拉斯哥、悉尼、墨尔本与阿德莱德送出复样，但都遗失了。巴夏礼收藏的纸张原始、价值高，造纸方法与每张纸的功能都详细记录下来。

朝鲜

他是1883年至1884年间驻朝鲜公使。他代表英国与朝鲜王朝谈判，于1883年签署了（United Kingdom-Korea Treaty of 1883）。条约生效后，他成为了第一个驻朝外交代表。

逝世、纪念

1883年，巴夏礼到了北京。在北京时，他的健康变差，在1885年3月21日因疟疾发热病逝。1890年4月8日，干诺公爵（Duke of Connaught）为他在上海外滩竖立纪念碑，但在二战时被日军移除。另在香港九龙油麻地亦有一条以其名字命名的白加士街。

家庭

巴夏礼的次女，梅布尔（Mabel Desborough Parkes），嫁给了皇家海军中尉埃格顿·斯科维那（Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener）。梅布尔在1890年策马时堕下身亡。长女马里昂（Marion）嫁给了凯瑟克家族的J.J.凯瑟克。

作品

据统计，巴夏礼的作品大约有20部。

• Observations on Mr. P.P. Thoms' rendering of the Chinese word ... Man. (1852)

• File concerning Harry Parkes' mission to Bangkok in 1856 from the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London.

• Papers, 1853-1872.

关连项目

• 巴夏礼夜壶

注释

参考

• Daniels, Gordon. Sir Harry Parkes: British representative in Japan 1865-83, 1996, Folkestone: Japan Library. ISBN 1-873410-36-0

• Lane-Poole, Stanley and Frederick Victor Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, 1894, London: 由香港大学图书馆扫描,HKUL Digital Initiatives, "China Through Western Eyes." extract, volume 1, chapters XV-XVII

• Ian Nish, British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972, 2004, Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 1901903516/ISBN 9781901903515

• Parkes, Harry. "Reports on the manufacture of paper in Japan", 1871, Japan, No. 4.

•

•

Early life

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 School, Birmingham in May 1838.

Career in China (1841–64)

First Opium War

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.

Parkes learnt the basics of the Chinese language and joined Morrison in Hong Kong in May 1842. On 13 June, he accompanied Pottinger on an expedition up the Yangtze River to Nanking. He witnessed the Battle of Chinkiang, the last major battle of the First Opium War, on 21 July. He was also present at the signing of the Treaty of Nanking on board on 29 August.

As a translator and then a consul

Between September 1842 and August 1843, Parkes served as a clerk under Karl Gützlaff, who was appointed as a civil magistrate in Chusan after the British occupied the island. In August 1843, he passed the consular examination in Chinese in Hong Kong and was appointed as a translator in Foochow in the following month. However, as there was a delay in the opening of Foochow port, he was instead reassigned to serve at the consulate in Canton and as an assistant to the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong.

In June 1844, Parkes was appointed as a translator in Amoy. In March 1845, he and Rutherford Alcock (the British consul in Amoy) were transferred to Foochow, where they were attacked on 4 October by Chinese soldiers, who threw stones at them. In June 1846, he assisted Alcock in securing $46,163 from the Chinese authorities in Fukien as compensation for British property looted and destroyed during a riot.

In August 1846, Parkes and Alcock were transferred to Shanghai, where Parkes continued to serve as Alcock's translator. He started studying the Japanese language in the following year. In March 1848, he accompanied the British vice-consul in Shanghai to Nanking to negotiate the punishment of the Chinese men who assaulted three British missionaries in Tsingpu, Shanghai. He was appointed as a translator in Shanghai on 9 April 1848. After taking a period of leave from 1850–51 in Europe, he returned to China and continued his service as a translator in Amoy – an appointment he assumed in July 1849. He was reassigned to Canton again on 21 November 1851 and travelled there in February in the following year. While he was in Canton, he served as an acting Consul during Sir John Bowring's absence. In August 1853, he was temporarily placed in charge of the British vice-consulate in Canton.

Parkes was appointed as the British consul in Amoy in 1854. In 1855, he accompanied Bowring to Siam as a joint secretary of the diplomatic mission to conclude a commercial treaty between the British and Siamese. The treaty, known as the Bowring Treaty, was signed in Bangkok on 18 April. Parkes then returned to Britain with the Bowring Treaty for it to be ratified by the British government. He delivered it on 1 July and was received by Queen Victoria on 9 July. He spent the rest of the year helping the Foreign Office with Chinese and Siamese business. He exchanged the ratified Bowring Treaty in Bangkok on 5 April 1856 and arrived in Canton in June to serve as the acting British consul during Alcock's absence.

Second Opium War

Outbreak of war

Parkes's position as the acting British Consul in Canton brought him into renewed contact with Ye Mingchen (or Yeh Ming-ch'en), the Qing-appointed Imperial Commissioner and Governor-General of Canton. Conflict between them eventually led to the outbreak of the Second Opium War (1856–60).

On 8 October 1856, the Chinese-owned lorcha Arrow, which was allegedly sailing under the Red Ensign, was boarded by officials from the Qing water patrol when she entered the Pearl River after they received intelligence that several pirates were on board. They arrested 12 Chinese sailors and took down the Red Ensign from the Arrow. Parkes protested to Ye against the removal of the Red Ensign because he saw it as an insult to Britain. Ye replied that Arrow was owned and crewed by Chinese sailors and the flag was not flying at the time. Parkes considered this action a violation of British treaty rights so he reported the incident to Sir John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong, and portrayed it as an insult to Britain.

Parkes then demanded that Ye release the detained sailors immediately and apologise for the alleged insult to the British flag. Although the British right to enter Canton had been established under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, it had previously been denied. Bowring saw the Arrow incident as an opportunity to enforce this right. The deliberate escalation of the incident into a war was the object of forcing the removal of Britain's obstacles to trade and diplomacy in Canton.

Ye refused to capitulate despite minor reprisals, thus the Royal Navy breached Canton's walls on 29 October, after which Parkes accompanied Admiral Sir Michael Seymour in entering Ye's administrative office. The British did not have sufficient troops to permanently occupy Canton, but they kept warships on the Pearl River and positioned their artillery to overlook the city. On 16 December, Qing forces set fire to the European settlement outside the city. Parkes retreated to Hong Kong and spent nearly a year there. During this period of time, he was severely criticised in Parliament. On 26 February 1857, Lord Malmesbury said in the House of Lords, "If it were not for the serious consequences involved in this matter, I do not know that I have ever met anything which I should consider more grotesque than the conduct of Consul Parkes throughout these transactions."

Battle of Canton

British reinforcements assembled in Hong Kong in November 1857 in preparation for war against the Qing Empire under the direction of Lord Elgin, who had been appointed as the British High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary to China. The British acted in coordination with the French, who were also drawn into the Second Opium War over the death of Auguste Chapdelaine, a French missionary in China. Parkes, who was attached to Admiral Seymour's staff, was part of the group of Anglo-French representatives who delivered an ultimatum to the Qing officials on 12 December. When the ultimatum expired, the British and French bombarded Canton on 28 December and conquered the city by late December. Parkes hunted Ye Mingchen through the streets of Canton; George Wingrove Cooke reported that Parkes took special pleasure in humiliating Ye. "Ye was my game," said Parkes, and finally found what a report called "a very fat man contemplating the achievement of getting over the wall at the extreme rear" of the administrative office.

On 9 January 1858, Bogui (or Po-kuei) was nominally reinstated by the Qing government as the Governor-General of Canton, but the city was actually governed by a European commission of two Englishmen (one of whom was Parkes) and a French naval officer. Parkes was the leader of the trio because he was the only one among them who could speak Chinese. The commission established a court, administered a police force, and opened the port on 10 February. Even though the Treaty of Tientsin was signed on 26 June, the Qing authorities in Kwangtung province remained hostile towards Europeans in Canton throughout 1858. They even mobilised militias and placed a large bounty on Parkes's head. Parkes was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) by Queen Victoria on 6 December 1859.

Peking campaign

On 25 June 1859, with the British attack on the Taku Forts by the Hai River in Tientsin hostilities between the Anglo-French and Qing sides resumed. On 6 July, Parkes was requested to join Lord Elgin in the Gulf of Pechihli. He sailed on 21 July and was appointed as Lord Elgin's Chinese secretary alongside Thomas Francis Wade.

On 1 August 1860, as an attaché to General Sir James Grant, Parkes was sent to Pehtang, Tientsin to take possession of the evacuated fort and perform some reconnaissance during the advance to the Taku Forts. After the successful assault on the main north fort on 21 August, he assisted in the negotiations for the surrender of the remaining Chinese positions in the forts. Three days later, he arrived in Tientsin, where he arranged for provisions for the Anglo-French forces and had meetings with the Qing imperial commissioners. Upon learning that the imperial commissioners did not hold plenipotentiary powers from the Xianfeng Emperor as they initially believed, the British and French troops then advanced further towards Tungchow near the Qing capital, Peking.

Parkes and a delegation – whose members included Henry Loch (Lord Elgin's private secretary) and Thomas William Bowlby (a journalist for The Times) – travelled ahead of the Anglo-French army to negotiate with the Qing officials in Tungchow on 14 and 17 September. After some negotiations, they managed to secure an agreement that the Anglo-French army should move to a position about away from Tungchow. On 18 September, he left Tungchow to mark out the site of the proposed British encampment, but returned to remonstrate with the Qing officials when he saw a Qing military force assembling at the site. After receiving a hostile response, he and the delegation attempted to head back to the British headquarters, but were arrested by Qing soldiers under the command of the general Sengge Rinchen. Following his capture, Parkes was escorted to Peking along with Loch, Nal Singh (a Sikh sowar), and two French soldiers. In Peking, he and Loch were taken to the Ministry of Justice (or Board of Punishments), where they were incarcerated and tortured.

On 29 September, as ordered by Prince Gong (the Xianfeng Emperor's brother), Parkes and Loch were transferred out of the prison to more comfortable living quarters in a temple, where they were pressured to intervene in the negotiations between the Anglo-French and Qing sides. Parkes refused to make any pledges or address any representations to Lord Elgin. On 8 October, Parkes, Loch and six other members of the delegation were released from captivity – just shortly before the Qing government received an order from the Xianfeng Emperor, who was taking shelter in the Chengde Mountain Resort, for their executions. On 18 October, in retaliation for the torture and deaths of the other members of the delegation, Lord Elgin ordered the British and French troops to burn down the Qing Empire's Old Summer Palace in the northwest of Peking.

Post-Second Opium War events

Following the signing of the Convention of Peking on 18 October 1860, Parkes returned to his post in Canton in January 1861 and managed the cession of Kowloon, Hong Kong to the Crown. The Treaty of Tientsin had opened the three Chinese port cities of Chinkiang, Kiukiang and Hankow to foreign trade. Between February and April 1861, Parkes accompanied Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope on an expedition along the Yangtze River to set up consulates at the three cities and attempt to reach an agreement with the Taiping rebels at Nanking.

Parkes returned to Peking in April 1861 but left for Nanking again in June for further meetings with the Taiping rebel leaders. On 21 October, the British and French returned the control of Canton to the Qing government, thereby ending Parkes's duties as the British commissioner in Canton. Parkes travelled to Shanghai in November and met up with the Taiping rebels again in Ningpo in December. In January 1862, he returned to England, where stories about his brief captivity in China during the Second Opium War had made him famous. On 19 May 1862, Queen Victoria made him a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) for his services. Parkes left England in January 1864 and arrived on 3 March in Shanghai, where he assumed the position of consul which he was previously appointed to on 21 December 1858. He was elected President of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1864, resuscitating the moribund society.

Career in Japan (1865–83)

In May 1865, during a trip to the Yangtze ports, Parkes received a notification for him to succeed Sir Rutherford Alcock as "Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and Consul-General in Japan". One of his tasks was to ensure the approval of the Imperial Court in Kyoto for the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty of 1854 and the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858.

During this turbulent Bakumatsu period, Parkes pursued a policy of neutrality between the Tokugawa shogunate and the pro-Imperial forces, hoping for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Due to his support for the reformers, he was marked and treated with bitter hostility by the reactionaries, who attempted to assassinate him on three separate occasions. The overthrow of the shogunate and the subsequent Boshin War caught him by surprise, but he continued the policy of British neutrality. On 22 May 1868 he presented his credentials to Emperor Meiji, thus making Great Britain the first foreign power to officially recognize the new Meiji government.

Throughout his 18 years in office, Parkes was instrumental in bringing a large number of British foreign advisors to train the Imperial Japanese Navy and to build modern infrastructure, such as lighthouses, a telegraph system and a railway between Tokyo and Yokohama.

He ran the British mission in a way that encouraged the junior members to research on, and study, Japan in greater depth. Ernest Satow and William George Aston benefited from this to become prolific scholars of Japanese studies.

While in Japan, Parkes's wife became known, in 1867, as the first non-Japanese woman to ascend Mount Fuji. She fell ill and died in London in November 1879 while making preparations for her family to come home. Although he was summoned urgently by telegraph, Parkes did not manage to reach London until four days after her death. He wrote to Frederick Victor Dickins, "She hoped to the last that I should have reached in time. I have now six children to take charge of, and feebly indeed shall I replace her in that charge, while the Legation will have lost that bright and good spirit to which it owed whatever attention it possessed."

Japanese paper report and collection

In 1869, Prime Minister William Gladstone requested a report on washi (Japanese paper) and papermaking from the British embassy in Japan. Parkes and his team of consular staff conducted a thorough investigation in different towns, and then published a government report, Reports on the manufacture of paper in Japan, and produced a collection of over 400 sheets of handmade paper. The main parts of this collection are housed in the Paper Conservation Laboratory of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Economic Botany Collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 1879, Kew sent duplicate samples to Glasgow, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, but these have been lost. The Parkes paper collection is important because the origin, price, manufacturing method and function of each paper was precisely documented.

Career in Korea (1883–84)

Having represented the British in the negotiations leading to a treaty of "Friendship, Commerce and Navigation," signed in the Kyongbok Palace in Seoul on 26 November 1883, Parkes was appointed as the British Minister to Korea in 1884. The new treaty came into force in April 1884, when Parkes returned to Seoul to exchange ratifications.

Death

Parkes died of malarial fever on 21 March 1885 in Beijing (spelt "Peking" at the time). On 8 April 1890, the Duke of Connaught unveiled a statue of Parkes at the Bund in Shanghai, where it stood until it was removed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the Second Sino-Japanese War. There is a memorial to him in St Paul's Cathedral.

Family

While in England, Parkes met Fanny Plumer, the granddaughter of Sir Thomas Plumer, the first Vice Chancellor of England, at the home of a mutual friend. "She was a beautiful girl," wrote a friend about her, "tall, well-proportioned, and graceful, her colouring rich and soft, her features expressing sensitiveness and the power of warm emotion; her dark brown eyes full of intelligence and speaking earnestness of purpose. She possessed in a large degree the power of fascination in which all her family were remarkable." After a six-week courtship, Parkes and Plumer were married on New Year's Day, 1856, in St Lawrence's Church, Whitchurch. The couple left England on 9 January.

Lady Fanny Parkes is noted for being the first non-Japanese woman, possibly the first woman, ever to scale Mount Fuji on 7 and 8 October 1867.

Parkes's elder daughter, Marion Parkes, married James Johnstone Keswick from the Keswick family, the controllers of Jardine Matheson Holdings. His second daughter, Mabel Desborough Parkes, married Captain Egerton Levett, a Flag Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. She died after falling from her horse in 1890.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Parkes, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 20 works in more than 30 publications in four languages and over 400 library holdings.

• Observations on Mr. P.P. Thoms' rendering of the Chinese word ... Man. (1852)

• File concerning Harry Parkes' mission to Bangkok in 1856 from the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London by Harry Parkes (1856)

• Papers, 1853–1872