The tragic - and heroic - death of Blackpool's first superstar nicknamed the 'Sea Serpent'

The dramatic sight of the stone column, life ring, and anchor inside Layton Cemetery grabs one's attention - but it's the words written on Jack Parkinson's headstone that really pull you in.
The Samuel Fletcher lifeboat was used by visitors to Blackpool's Stanley Park after being retired (Picture: JPIMedia archives)The Samuel Fletcher lifeboat was used by visitors to Blackpool's Stanley Park after being retired (Picture: JPIMedia archives)
The Samuel Fletcher lifeboat was used by visitors to Blackpool's Stanley Park after being retired (Picture: JPIMedia archives)

"He lost his life in a heroic attempt to save the bath engineer from a tank of boiling seawater," the inscription has told passers-by for over a century, since the former Liverpool and Blackpool player died at the age of just 36.

The story of Jack's dramatic life - and death - has been told before over the years, but it's the final sentence on his epitaph that make it worth telling again for a new, younger audience: "Never shall his memory fade".

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Born John Arnold Parkinson on August 27, 1875, 'Jack' showed talent as a footballer from a young age, playing for a number of local clubs before being spotted by Blackpool.

Jack, who died at 42, was given a good send-off (Picture: JPIMedia archives)Jack, who died at 42, was given a good send-off (Picture: JPIMedia archives)
Jack, who died at 42, was given a good send-off (Picture: JPIMedia archives)

During the journeyman's third spell with the Seasiders, he played in Blackpool's first Football League game against Lincoln City on September 5, 1896, and finished the season as top scorer with 15 goals to his name.

After a short spell at Liverpool, the attacker - who later became a centre defender - returned to Blackpool, making hundreds of appearances and being described as "a typical fisherman, working very hard in the centre".

One match programme - for Blackpool v Newcastle in the FA Cup in February 1906 - said: "Parkinson of Blackpool, who is admitted to have been a thorn in the side of international Brown at Sheffield, bears the title of the Sea Serpent, owing to the fact that when he is not in football toggery he is braced up in fisherman's oilskins".

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A fisherman by trade, Jack was also a lifeboatman in the resort for 20 years, and was involved in a number of high profile rescues while serving on the iconic Samuel Fletcher of Manchester lifeboat.

Jack Parkinson had an eventful life - and a tragic and heroic death (Picture: JPIMedia archives)Jack Parkinson had an eventful life - and a tragic and heroic death (Picture: JPIMedia archives)
Jack Parkinson had an eventful life - and a tragic and heroic death (Picture: JPIMedia archives)

In 1910, Jack moved to Barrow as manager, but returned to his hometown a year later after he was offered - and accepted - a post of superintendent at the council-run baths in Cocker Street.

It was there, at the Victorian structure where holidaymakers flocked for a supposedly healthy and therapeutic dip in the warm seawater, that Jack met his end.

At around 5pm on December 11, 1911, an engineer called Isaac Howcroft clambered onto a wooden platform above a six feet deep vat of boiling seawater to turn off a valve.

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The platform gave way, plunging Howcroft into the scalding water.

Jack was buried in Layton Cemetery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)Jack was buried in Layton Cemetery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)
Jack was buried in Layton Cemetery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)

His screams grabbed the attention of Jack and his wife Ada Bessie, who he had married on his return to the resort, and the pair rushed to help him.

Tragically, as Jack was helping Howcroft, the platform crumbled further, plummeting him into the vat too.

Somehow, the pair were able to climb out, but both were badly burned.

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A local doctor, James Johnson, was called and decided it would be unwise to move Jack or Howcroft to the Victoria Hospital, which was then in Whitegate Drive, because the cold air could have killed them.

His epitaph tells people of his bravery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)His epitaph tells people of his bravery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)
His epitaph tells people of his bravery (Picture: Michael Holmes for JPIMedia)

They were treated on the spot and stayed in the living quarters above the baths, which was bought by the council in 1911, before being moved to the Vic later in the week.

Both men died of their injuries after battling for their lives for over a week.

Howcroft, who lived in Moister Road and was 42 and left a wife and family, died second and had a relatively quiet funeral, but Jack, being a famous ex-footballer and lifeboatman, who had only five weeks previously attended the shipwrecked Rosaleen at Fairhaven, was given a celebrity funeral. He died on December 20, 1911.

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His coffin was placed in his own boat, the Union Star, and the lifeboat flag was draped over it as a cortege set off from his Cocker Street home to Christ Church in Queen Street.

The Lifeboat Band accompanied the procession and, after the service, he was buried at Layton Cemetery.

Jack's inquest was told the joists both men had been standing on gave way, with the coroner shown two pieces of wood that he could have easily broken with his hands.

The coroner said the wood was "very much decayed", with a jury returning a conclusion of accidental death.

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After his death, Jack was awarded the Carnegie Hero Trust Fund Medal, while the London Evening News reported in August 1913 that a monument was going to be built, though it never was.

When Blackpool's Hall of Fame was opened in 2006 by the late Jimmy Armfield, Jack was awarded a place.

After being retired from service in 1930 and being credited with saving 28 lives, the wooden Samuel Fletcher lifeboat was used on the lake at Stanley Park by day-trippers and families until the 1990s.

After being kept in storage, a project to restore the boat was started in 2018.

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Cocker Street Baths was demolished in 1974. A car park replaced the building.

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