Mr Henry Parkinson Hill was born in Brixton, London, England, in the latter half of 1875.

He was the youngest surviving child of Joseph Tripp Hill (1835-1918), an electrician and telegraph engineer, and Elizabeth Butler Moss (b. 1836), natives of Sussex and Liverpool, respectively who had married in 1859.

He had eight known siblings: Ann Wood (b. 1860), Eleanor Hague (b. 1861), Elizabeth Butler (b. 1863), Edward Butler (b. 1865), George Musgrave (b. 1866), Mary Brandon (b. 1869), Joseph Anderton (b. 1870) and Thomas Butler (b. 1874).
Hill's parents had made their home in Liverpool until the end of the 1860s before resettling in London, initially Hackney. The family appear on the 1881 census living at Fernbank in Belvoir Road, Camberwell and are still on this road by the time of the 1891 census. At the time of the 1901 census the family home is 2 Belle Vue on Staines Road, Heston, Middlesex, but Henry was absent, and his whereabouts at the time are unknown.

He was married in St Botolph's in Aldgate, London on 2 April 1903 to Florence Isabella Baxter (b. 3 March 1882) and was then described as a jeweller. Their only children, twin daughters Florence Jessie and Eleanor Annie, were born in Staines on 6 April 1905.

A Freemason, Hill was inducted into the Staines Lodge in March 1904.

Hill continued in the profession of a jeweller for only a few years until he developed tuberculosis; incapacitated by it and unable to adequately run his jewellers, Hill sold his business and relocated he and his family to Mortlake, Surrey; the family appear in the 1911 census living at 66 Upper Richmond Road in East Sheen, Mortlake, Surrey but Henry was then absent and his whereabouts unclear. There are indications that the family also spent time in Brighton.

With his disease progressing rapidly and suffering several minor haemorrhages of the lungs, doctors advised Hill to go on an ocean voyage. To provide an income, Hill did so in a working capacity as a steward. 

When he signed on to the Titanic on 4 April 1912, Hill gave his birthplace as Liverpool and local address as 66 Oxford Street, Southampton. His previous ship had been the Olympic, and as a third-class steward, he received monthly wages of £3 15s.

Henry Parkinson Hill died in the sinking, and his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Hill’s daughters were charitably educated by the Royal Masonic School for Girls following his death.

His daughter Eleanor never married and died in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, on 27 July 1976. Daughter Florence later worked as a mathematics teacher and was married in 1937 to Alan Alfred East (1901-1953); her second marriage, at the age of 89, was to Robert Alexander Edward (1918-1999). She remained active in later years, talking to school groups and travelling widely even into her well-advanced years. She died on 3 November 2007, aged 102.

Henry's widow Florence never remarried and died in Surrey on 9 January 1942.