Ennie CLARKE

16 March 1917

CLARKE - March 1st 1917, killed in action in France, Pte. Ennie Clarke, West Riding Regiment, of 20 Byron Street, Skipton, aged 19 years.

16 March 1917

SKIPTON FAMILY'S SECOND BEREAVEMENT - PTE. ENNIE CLARKE KILLED

We regret to say that Mr. and Mrs. T.H. Clarke, 20 Byron Street, Skipton, have suffered a second bereavement in the war by the death in action on the Western Front of their youngest son, Pte. Ennie Clarke, of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Mr. and Mrs. Clarke's eldest son, Pte. Tom Clarke, of the Green Howards, was killed over a year ago, and their two other sons, Sapper Sidney Clarke and Pte. Fred Clarke, are both at the Front, the former with the Royal Engineers, and the latter with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment.

Pte. Ennie Clarke, who was only 19 years of age, enlisted on November 15th 1915, and went to France about a month ago. He was apprenticed to the trade of bookbinding with Messrs. Edmondson and Co., but for something like 12 months before joining the Army he was assistant at the Skipton Stationery Company's shop (the 'Craven Herald' proprietors).

In a letter to the parents, Captain R.C. Prince says:- "It is with the greatest regret I have to inform you that your son was killed in action on March 1st. He was holding a post when a shell burst and killed him instantaneously. Your son was a splendid soldier, and I feel his loss very much, as I saw a lot of him and he was always a willing lad. Please accept my deepest sympathy."

Pte. H. Davis, another Skipton soldier, has written to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke as follows:- "It is with great sympathy that I have to break the sad news to you of the death in action of your dear son Ennie. I am sure it will come as a great blow to you, as it has to all of us, but it might relieve you a little to know that death was instantaneous. I believe it was from shell shock. He was a great soldier, loved by all of us, and we all send you our deepest sympathy in your sad bereavement."

26 October 1917

IN MEMORIAM - BROUGHAM STREET SCHOOL HEROES

At the Congregational Church, Skipton, on Tuesday evening, an impressive musical service was held in memory of the teachers and old scholars of the Brougham Street Council School who have fallen in the first three years of the war. Particulars of the deaths of these brave lads have appeared in our columns from time to time, and their names are as follows:- Willie Barraclough, C.D. Bennett (teacher), Arthur Bruce, Sam Cairns, Cyril Calvert, Ennie Clarke, Tom Clarke, Harry Ingham, Tom Langman, Reggie Pollard, Lewis Sedgwick, Joe Stewart, Harry Tindall (teacher), and J.W. Varley.

There was a large and sympathetic congregation, including relatives of those in whose honour the service was held. Conducted jointly by the Rev. L.H. Gaunt and Mr. A. Townsend (headmaster of the school), the service, in addition to special prayers, hymns, collects, &c., comprised anthems by the Brougham Street School Old Scholars' Choir (under the direction of Mr. Townsend), solos by Miss D. Wear and Mr. Clifford Townsend, and an address by Mr. Gaunt.

In a few introductory remarks Mr. Townsend explained the object of the service, which he said was one of praise rather than of sorrow for the splendour of the lives that had been laid down. - The anthems were 'O God, protect with Thy strong hand' (Greig), 'Rest for the Weary' (Gounod), 'The Lord is my Shepherd' (Smart), and 'Peace to the Souls of the Heroes' (Callcott), and in all these and in Nicholson's setting of the 'Magnificat' the girls' voices blended with pleasing effect, the singing being marked by a very fine tone and clear enunciation, showing evidence of careful training. Miss D. Wear sang most acceptably the exacting solo 'I know that my Redeemer' (Handel) and Mr. Clifford Townsend gave a meritorious interpretation of 'The trumpet shall sound' (Handel). In addition to playing the organ accompaniments with the customary taste and efficiency, Mr. W.H. Green contributed as a solo the 'Hallelujah Chorus.'

In his address the Rev. L.H. Gaunt expressed his pleasure that the Congregational Church should have been used for a service of that kind and said he would rejoice if it could be used more frequently for public gatherings in which not only comparatively small circle of their own congregation might join, but in which the whole town might feel that it had some part. He also expressed his agreement with what Mr. Townsend had said as to the view they ought to take of the death of their boys, and said he felt that the Bishop of London - despite the fact that he had been taken to task for his expression of opinion - was right when he said that they ought not to think of the death of their boys as sheer calamity and overwhelming sorrow. They ought to think of them as having made a sacrifice bravely and heroically at the call of their country and for humanity, and those who were left behind to cherish their memory would honour them best by thinking of that sacrifice as a victory and not as a disaster; and their remembrance of them should come as a call to follow their example, to live so that they would be worthy of the sacrifice of their loved ones, and to bring to their lives into harmony with the great high note that they had struck in their sacrifice. They thanked God for what their boys had done and suffered, and most of all for what they had been and were now, and to ask His grace to follow in their train.

A collection was taken on behalf of the proposed new memorial of the Brougham Street School, which will probably take the form of a scholarship fund.

01 March 1918

CLARK - In loving memory of Ennie Clarke, who was killed in France March 1st, 1917.

Who could have fired that horrid shot
On one we loved d so well;
We never knew the pain he bore,
No mortal tongue can tell.
A lonely grave in a far off land,
A grave we may never see,
But Ennie, while life and memory last
We will fondly remember thee.

From his Father, Mother and Sisters (and two Brothers in France), 20, Byron Street, Skipton.