BORN HULL 1896. KNOWN AS ‘BILLY’. SON OF CHARLES MARTEN & ELIZABETH CLARK, OF 10, CAROLINE PLACE. (HDM ADDRESS, 16/04/1917) AND 25, LEE STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). SON OF A MASTER FRAME MAKER. HE WORKED FOR STATHERS AND SON, LEONARD STREET, SINCE LEAVING SCHOOL. THIS WAS HIS ARMY ADDRESS ABOVE.
HE SERVED IN THE “HULL PALS”, 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND BELGIUM. HE WAS KILLED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 21. HE WAS THE SECOND SON TO FALL IN A MONTH. HIS BROTHER, LANCE CORPORAL, (CHARLES) PERCY CLARK, 2ND YORKSHIRE REGIMENT WAS KILLED AT ARRAS, ON 02/04/1917, AGED 22. THE SURVIVING BROTHER, FRANK CLARK, WROTE “BILLIE WAS NOT SELECTED FOR THIS ATTACK, BUT VOLUNTEERED TO GO IN PLACE OF A MARRIED MAN”
BILLY IS REMEMBERED ON ST MARY’S CHURCH WAR MEMORIAL, LOWGATE & HULL’S CLIFTON STREET SCHOOL ROLL OF HONOUR. HIS PHOTOGRAPH APPEARS IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, 15TH MAY 1917. *
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3rd May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
