| Description | Marble bust of Thomas Heazle Parke
Licentiate of RCSI, 1878 and the LKQCPI (Kings and Queen’s College) the following year. Joined the Army Medical Department in 1881 when 23 years old and continued in service until the time of his death. Parke was posted to Egypt in 1882 and served in Egyptian and Sudan campaigns including Tel-el-Kebir (1882), Nile campaign (1884-1885), Metemnh, and Khartoum. In 1887 H. M. Stanley, the explorer, arrived in Alexandria and began to organise the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. Parke was appointed Medical Officer to this expedition. The route went through the Congo (Zaire) to Lake Albert where Emin Pasha, the German-born Governor of Equatoria was rescued. The expedition continued until they arrived safely in Zanzibar in 1889. Parke is credited with saving Stanley on at least two occasions in their expedition and his skills as a physician were highly praised and rewarded. Parke was the first Irishman to cross the African continent and the second doctor to do so after Dr Livingstone. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1889. |