| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private John Robert Clark was killed, aged 22, on 9 Apr 1917, the first day of the Battle of Arras. John enlisted with the East Yorkshire Regiment according to his Medal Card, but was transferred to 2nd Yorkshire Regiment.
John was born in Beverley his mother, Mary Jane, nee Cook, and father, Thomas, were also born in Beverley, as were John's sisters, Ethel and Olive May and brother Tom. His father was a fruiterer hawker and John, known as Robert within the family, followed in his father’s footsteps. The 1939 Register tells brother Tom also joined the family business as a fruiterer. It was a month after John’s death before the family received the news. On 12 May 1917 the Beverley Guardian printed a photograph and a short piece saying Mr T M Clark of 68 Keldgate had received official notification earlier in the week that his eldest son had been killed in action on 9 Apr in France.
John is remembered with Honour at Neuville-Vitasse Road Cemetery alongside 10 other men from the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment who were also killed on that day. John’s name was omitted from Beverley’s Hengate Memorial but can be found on the Keldgate Street Shrine
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |