Received Honours at Shrewsbury House Preparatory School in 1910; he went on to H.M.S. Worchester which he left in 1912 to join the P&O Shipping Company.

Was the 4th Officer on the S.S. Persia, when it was struck by a German torpedo off Crete on the 30th of December, 1915. Of the 519 souls on board, 343 were killed; unfortunately, Harold Parton was one of these.