Hi,
I believe the book excerpt below is about the Clarke family you are researching -
Sergeant, John ‘Jack’ Clarke
He was born on the 3
rd April 1874, at Multyfarnham.
Son of Anne Callaghan and Peter Clarke, a baker.
Related by marriage to A/Bombardier Robert Scott (also in this collection).
Firstly, he enlisted at Athlone on 24th September 1891 with the Royal Irish
Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion. Service No. 3989, and later No. 13302.
Like his father, he was noted to be a ‘baker’ by trade.
His service overseas was in the East Indies from 23rd February 1893 to 4
th
April 1896, in Burma from 1st May 1896 to 20th December 1897, and onto
Egypt on 21st December 1897 until 12th November 1899.
He arrived in South Africa on 13th November 1899 where he fought in the
Boer War, and he remained there until Christmas 1901. In his papers of that
time he was rated 1st class in Musketry and was also the Regimental
postman. On 1st January 1901 he was promoted to rank of Corporal. He was
in regimental employment for a time to the Johannesburg Police, from 14th
March to 25th November 1901, and he is recorded in the Johannesburg Police
Commissioner's papers as ‘Constable John Clarke’.
He was awarded the King’s & Queen’s South Africa Medal for his Boer War
service at Cape Colony and Transvaal, and the Good Conduct Badge.
He returned home on 24th June 1902 to the Army Reserve and passed his
medical for same at Armagh on 1st July 1902.
As a civilian in 1904, he received a sentence of two months ‘hard labour’ for
the theft of ‘a quantity of ale and stout’. In his favour, an entry by a Lt.-Col.
J.W.G. Dawkins remarks that ‘given his previous good service and character,
his two months sentence was sufficient punishment, and unless some other
good reason is given to warrant his discharge, he will remain with the
Reserve’. He was also reduced to rank of Private and deprived of his G.C.
Badge. He was discharged from this first period of service at Belfast on 23rd
September 1907. His next of kin listed were his parents Peter Clarke and
Annie Clarke, of Moate.
For WW1 service, he attested at Mullingar on 11th September 1914, reenlisting as a Private on 13th September 1914 with the Royal Irish Fusiliers, 4th
Battalion. Service No. 109243.
On 13th May 1915 he was promoted to rank of Sergeant and transferred to
the 4th Garrison Battalion RIF on 22nd September.
From then until 2nd March 1917 Jack Clarke must have been on the front line
as he was ‘posted’ in that period, place unstated. He was transferred then to
the Royal Irish Regiment, Labour Corps, 2nd Battalion.
After 4 years and 206 days, he was finally discharged from army service on
the 4
th April 1919, being ‘no longer physically fit for war service’.
He was awarded the British War Medal, and the Victory Medal.
At that time, he names his next of kin as his daughter Bridget, her address
was Carmelite Convent, Moate.
Jack Clarke had a busy military life, and apparently an equally busy home life.
After returning home from Johannesburg in 1902, he married Anne Maguire.
By 1909, they had one son and four daughters, when Anne died of
Tuberculosis on the 14th April 1910.
On the 11th October 1915 he married for a second time, to a lady in a similar
predicament to himself. Mary Seery’s husband, William Trappe, also died in
1910, leaving her with a son and two daughters, all three of them were under
five years old.
Jack Clarke and Mary Seery-Trappe married in Kilmanaghan church on the
11th October 1915. They had a son Patrick, who married Kathy Connor of the
Dublin Road, and a daughter Lily who married Gerard Gaylard of Athlone.
Jack Clarke died at Athlone Hospital on 15th April 1951, his death record
describes him as ‘a baker’, and his address was 16 Oliver Plunkett Terrace,
Moate. Living relatives include his grandsons (*), both now living in Athlone.
(*) Moderator edit: names of possibly living descendants redacted.
