William Theodore Parkes

William Theodore Parkes was an Irish medallist, artist, journalist, and poet associated with the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sources available here identify him as the son of Isaac Parkes, and say he first worked as a medallist with his father before branching out into other kinds of art and writing.

According to A Dictionary of Irish Artists, Parkes later worked on his own in Fleet Street, exhibited drawings at the Royal Hibernian Academy between 1875 and 1883, and also published heraldic material connected with Irish families. The same source says he contributed journalism to papers including The Nation and The Weekly Freeman, and published verse under the pen name “Barney Bradey.”

Readers today are most likely to know him for The Spook Ballads (1895), a collection of supernatural poems noted for their humor, folklore flavor, and lively recitation style. The sources consulted also describe him as working in London as an artist, journalist, and public reciter, and give his lifespan as 1864–1908 or say that he died about 1908.