Henry George Parson was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born merchant and political figure in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. He represented Columbia

Columbia (electoral district)

Columbia was a provincial electoral district in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It made its first appearance on the hustings in the election of 1903. It lasted until the 1928 election, after which the revised riding was renamed Columbia River...

 from 1907 to 1912 as a Conservative

British Columbia Conservative Party

The British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...

.

He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, the son of George E. Parson, and was educated there. Parson came to Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 in 1883, moved to Banff

Banff, Alberta

Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....

 in 1885 and then came to British Columbia in 1887. In 1889, he married Mary Jane Reid. Parson lived in Golden

Golden, British Columbia

Golden is a town in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, located west of Calgary, Alberta and east of Vancouver.-History:Much of the town's history is tied into the Canadian Pacific Railway and the logging industry...

. He served as president of the Golden Board of Trade and of the Golden Hospital Society. He was chairman of the Royal Commission of Labour which produced its report in 1914. Parson died in Vancouver at the age of 70.

The community of Parson near Golden was named after him.