Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ERNEST WILLIAM CLARKE 23964. Born 1887, the second of five children, to Jonathan and Mary Clark of 49 Terry Street, Beverley Road, Hull. He had worked for Stathers & Son Ltd, Leonard Street, since leaving school. Ernest was married on 08/05 /1912, living at 10 Roxburg Street, Perth Street, Hull. He enlisted at Hull City Hall on 11th December 1915 just a few days before the Conscription Law was passed. He gave his trade as a ‘Manufacturer’. Ernest was called up on 30th May 1916 and shipped out to join The Pals in France. He is listed as having been killed in action on 6th May 1917, though I suspect he may have died of wounds sustained on the 3rd. The 10th Battalion had been released from the front line on the 4th and marched to the rear. I believe Ernest was probably wounded and taken to 30th Casualty Clearing Station at Aubigny, for it is in the Communal Cemetery there his body is buried. He was 30 years old. Private Surfleet describes the front line in the days after the attack: “What a bloody trench! It was blown in in several places and splashed with blood (and God knows what else) all over the place. I remembered a similar smell in a slaughterhouse when I was a boy, but I doubt if I shall forget the sight of those dismembered, torn, shell-racked bodies which, pushed up on the parapet and parados out of the way until they could be buried, were covered with great, big, bloody awful bluebottles. I felt physically sick. The sun was blazing down on this gruesome collection of flesh; over the top other decomposing bodies, fly infested and stinking, stewed in the heat.”
Hi army effects and war pension were left to his widow Florrie Alice Louisa Clark and daughter, Enid, at 49 Terry Street, Beverley Road, Hull.
Ernest’s photograph was printed in the Hull Daily Mail on the 15th May 1917.
His brother Billie Clarke, EYR was killed in action on 3rd May 1917, the second son to fall in one month. Two other brothers also served.
BORN HULL 1879. SON OF WILLIAM AND ANNIE M CLARKE. HE MARRIED AT HULL IN 1907. HE SERVED AS PRIVATE, 23964, 10TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. WOUNDED AT OPPY WOOD ON 03/05/1917. HE DIED OF WOUNDS, AT 30TH CASUALTY CLEARING STATION, ON 06/05/1917. AGED 38. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS WIDOW, (FLORRIE) ALICE LOUISE CLARK, AT 49 TERRY STREET, BEVERLEY ROAD, HULL & 10, ROXBURGH STREET, PERTH STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESSES). THEY HAD A DAUGHTER, ENID. HE IS BURIED AT AUBIGNY COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, FRANCE. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 15/05/1917, 19/05/1917, AND 06/05/1919, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH. *
NOTE: HIS SURNAME IS SPELT “CLARK” IN SOLDIERS DIED RECORDS, AND “CLARKE” IN CWGC RECORDS.
