Ella Parker

(Did you mean the Canadian Ella Parker?)

(January 1, 1916 – February 20, 1993)

Sadie Shaw and Ella Parker, right, at RePetercon, 1964. From the collection of Forry Ackerman.

Ella Anderson Parker was a Scottish-born London fan active from 1958 to the early 1970s. She was a conrunner and fanzine editor, and a member of OMPA, IPSO, the BSFA and the Science Fiction Club of London. She chaired Loncon II, the 1965 Worldcon. For much of the 1960s she was a central figure in London fandom, hosting weekly meetings at her home. Rob Hansen described her as the 'most important' British fan of the 1960s.

While there is some doubt about her date of birth – for which see below – Parker certainly came to fandom relatively late in life. She was of the same generation as the earliest British fans while her fannish contemporaries were typically twenty or so years younger than her.

She dated her fannish birthday to 'three weeks before Easter in 1958'. Jim Linwood believed she first contacted Archie Mercer after seeing something in a prozine and Mercer referred her to the then weekly London meetings at The Globe. She attended a meeting in March 1958, described by Ken Bulmer in Steam #15 (Summer 1958). It seems Parker was in company with another woman, perhaps not a fan herself. Bulmer contrived to involve them in conversation with his wife, Pam, and they revealed they were on the point of going home, unsure they were in the right place.

Parker then attended Cytricon IV, the 1958 Eastercon in Kettering, where she seemed immediately at home if occasionally unfamiliar with fannish practices. She and Bobbie Wild went out in search of tea on the Saturday morning and Parker was nearly run over by a hearse. She was present for the meeting that led to the formation of the BSFA later in the year, and she became a founder member (#17). Wild, writing in Femizine #10, said that Parker:

has the makings of a Trufan except for one thing – you have to stand over her with a blunt instrument before she will put pen to paper.

It seems she overcame that reticence. The following year, she took over Orion from Paul Enever and in 1960 it won the Skyrack Readers Fan Poll for Best Fanzine of the year. In 1961, she won again for The ATom Anthology. Parker ceased publication of Orion in 1962 after its 29th issue. That year, she won the Skyrack Readers Fan Poll, this time for Fan Personality of the Year, and took over editorship of Vector for two issues (#16 and 17). She joined IPSO in 1961 and, despite an initial reluctance, she joined OMPA in 1963, publishing the apazine Compact. She also served as UK agent for Starspinkle from late 1963.

In October 1959 she was present at the inaugural meeting of the Science Fiction Club of London and was elected its chairwoman. From March 1960 she hosted twice-monthly meetings of the Club at her home, 151 Canterbury Road, Kilburn. The flat was known as 'The Penitentiary', a pun based on Parker's Pens. In August she added a BSFA open house on Friday evenings, a practice that continued when in 1963 she moved to a new flat at 43 William Dunbar House, Albert Road, taking 'The Penitentiary' name with her.

Parker also served as the BSFA's Secretary and as editor of the BSFA Newsletter in the early '60s. She was on the committee for London (Eastercon), the 1960 Eastercon.

In early 1961, Parker confided in a few friends that she hoped to attend Seacon, the 1961 Worldcon in Seattle, and was saving up to do so. For context, relatively few UK fans had attended an American Worldcon at this point and those who had done so had either had a professional involvement in the community (Bert Campbell), been funded through TAFF or its precursors (Walt Willis, Ken Bulmer, Ron Bennett, Eric Bentcliffe), or both (Ted Carnell). Parker 'insisted from the start that the scheme should be kept secret, so that she would not be dependent on fannish charity' (Skyrack #32 (May 1961)). Nevertheless, the Parker Pond Fund was created to bring her to the convention. The first installment of her trip report, Parker's Peregrinations, was voted one of the Top Ten British Fan Publications of the year.

Her fannish involvement diminished later in the end decade. She attended Eastercon 22 in 1971 but it was to be her last. In 1972 she travelled to Florida for the launch of Apollo 16 and enjoyed it immensely.

Ansible #79 (February 1994) brought the news, relayed by Ethel Lindsay, that Parker 'entered a hospice and died last year.'

In 2020, Rob Hansen expanded Parker's trip report, adding accounts by various fans of the rest of her trip and including letters from Parker herself. This was published as the Ansible Editions ebook The Harpy Stateside (the original subtitle of Parker's Peregrinations). A fanthology, The Compact Ella Parker, also assembled by Hansen, was published in 2022 with an update in 2025.

Personal Life

Ella Parker was born in Scotland and reportedly raised in an orphanage with her brother Fred. Her birth date of January 1, 1916, while being cited on the official record of her death, is likely conjectural. January 1 was often used where there was no official record and Parker later said that all records had been destroyed in a fire at the orphanage. The pseudonymous London fan Geoff Lindsay thought she may not have known herself when she was born. Bruce Burn deduced from her passport that she was 39 when she visited America in 1961, suggesting that either Burn was very bad at maths or her passport showed a date of birth of 1922.

Parker said she was brought to London by her mother when she was 12 so perhaps 1928. She and her brother lived at 151 Canterbury Road, Kilburn from at least 1946, moving to 43 William Dunbar House in early 1963. The change of address was reported in Skyrack #49 (February 4, 1963) and repeated in #50 (March 4, 1963) as apparently not everybody had got the message.

According to Jim Linwood, she was for a while courted by Ian R. McAulay who even proposed marriage.

In her early years Parker worked in cafes and hotels, and during the Second World War as a bus conductor. Later she worked in catering and, after getting a typewriter for fannish purposes and learning to type, as a copy-typist. In 1970 she was working for the sf publisher Denis Dobson.

Remarkably, we now know that the sibling relationship between Ella and Fred was a fiction. They had in fact married in 1941. However, at some point they decided to present as brother and sister and seemingly lived as such for decades, to the point that Ella was recorded as 'sister' on Fred's death certificate. Nothing in the fannish record indicates why they did this.

Links

• Audio of Parker at Loncon II Opening Ceremony at fanac.org (.wav)
• Prolapse #12 online at efanzines.com, containing much fanhistory mentioning Ella Parker (PDF)

Fanzines and Apazines:

• The ATom Anthology
• BSFA Newsletter
• Compact (for OMPA)
• The Compact Ella Parker
• The Harpy Stateside
• Orion
• Parker's Peregrinations
• Vector (issues 16-17)

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1960 – Skyrack Readers Fan Poll
• 1961 – Parker Pond Fund, Skyrack Readers Fan Poll
• 1962 – Skyrack Readers Fan Poll

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Person

1916—1993

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