BORN HULL 22/09/1897. BAPTISED AT ST CHARLES CHURCH, HULL, ON 24/10/1887. SON OF MARY HESTER (1869-1945) & THE LATE PTE. HERBERT TAYLOR CLARK (1870-1915), OF 4, PHOENIX COURT, WATERLOO STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). HE HAD THREE SISTERS AND ONE BROTHER.
HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. AFTER THREE AND HALF YEARS OF SERVICE, HE WAS KILLED IN ACTION, ON 29/09/1918, AGED 21. BURIED AT TYNE COT CEMETERY, BELGIUM. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS WIDOWED MOTHER.
HIS FATHER SERVED AS PRIVATE, 3/7487, 2ND EAST YORKSHIRES AND WAS KILLED AT YPRES, ON 05/02/1915, AGED 45.
BOTH FATHER AND SON ARE LISTED ON THE ST CHARLES BORROMEO WW1 MEMORIAL, JARRATT STREET, HULL.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN BERNARD CLARK 31048. Born 1897, the son of Herbert and Mary Clark of 4 Phoenix Court, Waterloo Street, Hull. John’s father is listed as having been in the army, and as having died, but I can’t trace him or the rest of the family as their details are missing from Census records. Perhaps they were posted abroad at the time and not included, hard to say from this distance, but I do know that John enlisted in Hull and was sent to The Pals in France. He was killed in action on 29th September 1918 during the fateful attack on Ploegsteert Wood and his body was never recovered. John Bernard Clark is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to those who have no known grave; he was 21 years old. The Battalion War Diary records it in matter-of-fact cold precision: “Patrols were pushed forward along the battalion front and meeting with no opposition went through Ploegsteert Wood. The battalion following up reached a line running along Border Avenue where they met considerable fire from Machine Gun and snipers.”
Hull Daily Mail October 9th 1918 records:
Pte. John Bernard Clark (31048), E.Y. was killed in action on October 5th last. Deceased, who was only 21 years of age, had served 3 and a half years with the Colours. His father, Pte. Herbert Clark, was killed in action on February 5th 1915.”
According to the CWGC records, Herbert Taylor Clarke, 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regt, Service No. 3/7487 died on 05/02/1915 and is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. His medal card shows that he entered France on on 15/01/1915. Herbert T. Clarke would have been 45 at the time of his death. There’s a photo of H.T. Clark on the front page of the Hull Daily News dated 17th March 1915.
Both father and son are listed on the Roll of Honour at St Charles Borromeo, Hull.
