Desmond Parsons
{{Short description|British aristocrat, sinologist, and aesthete}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Hon. Desmond Edward Parsons {{Small|FRAS}} (13 December 1910 – 4 July 1937) was a British aristocrat, amateur sinologist, and aesthete, regarded as "one of the most magnetic men of his generation."{{cite journal|last1=Payne|first1=Tom|title=A brilliant boy who died in terrible times|journal=The Telegraph|date=2003|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3606648/A-brilliant-boy-who-died-in-terrible-times.html|accessdate=3 October 2017}} He had a passionate friendship with James Lees-Milne, was the one true love of Harold Acton and the unrequited love of Robert Byron.
Early life
Desmond Edward Parsons was born on 13 December 1910, the third child of William Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse and Frances Lois Lister-Kaye (1882–1984), and the younger brother of Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse.
He studied at Eton College where he had a passionate friendship with James Lees-Milne.{{cite web|title=THE LIFE OF JAMES LEES-MILNE|url=http://www.jamesleesmilne.com/life.html|accessdate=3 October 2017}} Parsons entered Oxford University and then the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.{{cite web|title=Desmond Parsons and China|url=http://birrcastle.com/china-links/|website=Birr Castle|date=24 March 2016 |accessdate=3 October 2017}}
Personal life
File:Robert Byron and Desmond Parsons in China.jpg and Desmond Parsons in China]]
In 1934, Desmond Parsons, a brilliant linguist, went to China to reach his friend, and possible lover, Harold Acton who was in Beijing lecturing at the Peking National University. According to Acton's friends, Parsons was Acton's "one true love of his life".{{cite book|last1=Aldrich|first1=Robert|last2=Wotherspoon|first2=Garry|title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II|date=2002|publisher=Psychology Press|page=4|isbn=9780415159838|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLWTqBmifh0C&pg=PA4|accessdate=3 October 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Mungello|first1=David Emil|title=Western Queers in China: Flight to the Land of Oz|date=2012|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|page=92|isbn=9781442215573|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f5qBEDvSPXgC&pg=PA92|accessdate=3 October 2017}}
In China Parsons visited the caves at Dun Huang. He removed a wall painting using tools and was caught when he tried to carry it away in his vehicle.[http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news44/idpnews_44.a4d#section3 IDP News Issue No. 44: Desmond Parsons in Chinese Archives] He was released after the British government intervened. His photographs of the place were later acquired by the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Parsons was also the great, but unreciprocated love of Robert Byron, a travel writer. In 1934 they lived together in Peking, where Parsons developed Hodgkin's Disease.{{cite book|last1=Wood|first1=Frances|title=The Lure of China : history and Literature from Marco Polo to J.G Ballard|date=2009|page=179|publisher=Long River Press |isbn=9789620427398|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4UoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179|accessdate=3 October 2017}} His brother, who was visiting him, managed to bring back Parsons to Europe where he died on 4 July 1937. Byron died in 1941 when the ship he was travelling on was attacked during World War II.
Legacy
At the beginning of the World War II, Acton sent back to Birr Castle Parsons' collection of Chinese Art. The journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, of which he had become a resident member in the year of his death,{{Cite journal |date=1937-07-20 |title=Anniversary Meeting |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/abs/anniversary-meeting/36CD083490A39C01CE655EB0A55AA36B |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |language=en |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=542–569 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00086366 |s2cid=250346562 |issn=1474-0591 |via=Cambridge|url-access=subscription }} honoured him with an obituary noting his "unusual capacity for observation" and "fine scholarly instinct" as well as "charming personality and transparent honesty of purpose".{{Cite journal |last=Yetts |first=W. Perceval |date=October 1937 |title=Hon. Desmond Parsons |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |language=en |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=726 |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00091863 |issn=1474-0591|doi-access=free }}