PILOT OFFICER ARTHUR WILLIAM CLARKE
With its chained perimeter, headstone, and
floral tributes, this little plot looks like a grave. But no
body lies buried here. By the side of a small road on the Romney
Marsh, south of Newchurch, this is a memorial.
There probably is a body, though. Close to this spot on 11th
September 1940, when enemy invasion plans were faltering
during the Battle of Britain, and targets were changing from air fields to towns and cities, Pilot Officer A. W.
Clarke, service number 42485, was shot down. His Hurricane
smashed into the marshland at around four in the afternoon. It lies there still, beneath the
soil and the grazing sheep. P3370 is a crumpled coffin, for
within its broken and twisted embrace lies also, we believe, the
remains of Arthur
Clarke.
Born on Boxing Day 1919 in Altrincham to
Frank and Lavinia Clarke, Arthur was twelve when he went with
his sister to Cheadle Hulme School. Arthur's school career was
notable, as he became first house and then school captain. In
March 1938, as German troops went into Austria. Arthur left
school to work for the Air Ministry in meteorology, and by June 1939
he had joined the RAF. On April 7th 1940 he joined 504 squadron.
Three months later he was posted missing from
operations. He was never to return.
In 1971 the Battle of Britain Museum,
Hawkinge, excavated the crash site Retrieved were parts of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, a
map storage box with a full set of maps, silk inner gloves for a
pilot, and, most tellingly and poignantly of all, a pocket
handkerchief marked in indelible pencil with the
name
"Clarke". The investigations suggested also that the pilot
had stayed in his plane.
The Air Forces memorial at Runnymede is for
airmen lost during World War II from bases in the United Kingdom
and in north and western Europe. There are 20,000 names there,
of men who have no known grave. Pilot Officer Clarke's name is
amongst them (see left). He is one of the rare cases where, despite a
positive identification, he remains counted amongst the missing.
His family requested that any remains should stay where they lay,
entombed in the plane that took him into the earth. There was no
official burial; instead, on the anniversary of his
death, 11th September 1986,
the memorial was unveiled near the place where he fell.
Forty-six years before, on that day in September,
there were seventeen Battle of Britain pilots killed or missing.
The Marsh itself has slowly covered a number of crash
sites. Far from his childhood home is Arthur, a lone
wanderer from the silent cities of the dead. Yet his memorial often bears new
flowers and new tributes; passers-by often stop to read the
inscription:-
In proud and loving
memory of Pilot Officer
Arthur William Clarke
aged 20
504 Squadron
One of The Few
Killed in Action near this spot
11th September 1940
during the Battle of Britain
There
is just one name on the stone, but Arthur's memorial is an
understated and moving symbol for all whose battleground was far above our heads, for all those
who fought and fell from the skies. Pilot Officer A. W Clarke lies
cold and alone in the bleak marsh. But merely to gaze upon his stone
brings him once more amongst his comrades and friends of that
long-ago summer.
Post Script.
There are other Battle of Britain pilots who lie still where
they crashed. Amongst them is Robert Shaw, who died on 3rd
September 1940. His remains at Chart Sutton are commemorated by
a memorial garden. Eric Williams is another. He was shot
down on 15th October 1940. His remains are at Gravesend; but
attempts to recover them have been unsuccessful as he is
believed now to be buried too deeply.
However, around a dozen
Battle of Britain pilots originally commemorated at Runnymede
have now been recovered. Amongst them is John Joseph Brimble,
shot down on 14th September 1940. His remains were brought from
the cockpit forty years later, and reburied at Brookwood
Military Cemetery. Sergeant Brimble has two official graves; the
other, earlier, originally dedicated to an unknown airman, is at Sittingbourne.
John Ellis, known as Hugh, has three graves. Two at St Mary Cray
are for an unknown airman, the third is named. This is at
Brookwood, where further remains were buried with full military
honours after a new excavation at the site of the crash at
Chelsfield.
|
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left: Robert Shaw's memorial garden
right: "Hugh" Ellis' headstone: it reads
"One of the Glorious Few
Finally Rested 1.10.93
Dulce et Decorum Est
Pro Patria Mori" |
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left: John Brimble's headstone at
Brookwood
right: John Brimble's headstone at Sittingbourne
The words on both read:
"One of The Few
And One of The Many
Who Gave For Us
Their Very Best" |
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This article will be updated. Do please
contact us if
you have any further information about Arthur Clarke.
pictures of the memorial with thanks to Phil
Evans
pictures of Pilot Officer Clarke's name on the Runnymede
memorial, the gravestones of Sergeants Brimble and
Ellis, the garden for P/O Robert Shaw, and the BoB clasp with thanks to Dean Sumner
biographical information of Arthur Clarke from "Men of the Battle of Britain", by
Kenneth G Wynne
with thanks to Phil Evans and with thanks to Dean Sumner for
their interest, information, and kind help
above left: John Brimble, picture from Dean Sumner
above right: "Hugh" Ellis, detail from a portrait of Sergeant
John Ellis, created from a photograph by Geoff Nutkins,
www.aviart.com. Supplied by Dean Sumner, reproduced by kind
permission of Geoff Nutkins.
More about Arthur Clarke
by Dean Sumner
Wednesday 11th September
1940 began with a bad weather morning and there was
little enemy activity apart from reconnaissance aircraft
ranging across southern
England. The Luftwaffe
had plans for large scale raids this day and as the
situation improved during the early afternoon, bomber
aircraft began to lift up into the skies over
France
and assembled ready to strike across the Channel with
their fighter escort.
By mid-afternoon the raiders were
over the Thames Estuary and RAF fighter squadrons
responded with Hurricanes and Spitfires getting stuck
into whirling dogfights. Running short of fuel,
Messerschmitt fighter escorts soon had to turn for home
leaving the Heinkel bombers alone to face the continued
onslaught from the RAF defenders and they paid a heavy
price.
One of the RAF squadrons in the air
was 504 ‘County of Nottingham’
Squadron based at Hendon. Vectored towards the south
coast just before 4pm, the nine Hawker Hurricanes
despite being outnumbered engaged a formation of Dornier
bombers and their fighter escort about 10 miles west of
Folkestone.
The combat was brief and as the
Hurricanes headed back home towards
London, three of
the pilots had claims against a couple of the Dorniers,
but only eight of their number landed at Hendon.
Residents of Romney Marsh witnessed
daily the air battles over their villages and towns and
a Miss Holmwood of Wills Farm made a note in her dairy
for 11th September, “... Hurricane
crashed at Newchurch and buried itself deep in the
ground.” At the close of the day at Hendon there was
still no news of young Pilot Officer Arthur Clarke. A
squadron colleague Sergeant Ray Holmes, said, “I
don’t think anyone knew what happened to him. I
certainly didn’t. He simply disappeared.”
It was the duty of the Squadron
Commander, John Sample, to write to the parents of
Arthur Clarke about their missing son and he could offer
little hope that he might be alive or in enemy hands.
With the combat having taken place on the coast it was
felt he might have crashed into or baled out over the
sea.
As one of the ‘missing’ from the war,
Arthur’s name was commemorated at
Runnymede.
P/O Clarke remained as ‘disappeared’
for another 30 plus years until after the crash site on
Romney Marsh was excavated confirming a Hurricane and a
name for the tragic pilot. A long investigation
eventually found trace of surviving Clarke family
members and it was Arthur’s sister Mrs Freeman who
confirmed that the wish was, “... to leave
Bill’s remains where they lie ...”
A memorial service and dedication of
a privately funded memorial stone was conducted on the
46th anniversary of Arthur’s loss by the Rev.
Walker and a poignant poem was later found on the
memorial:-
Think of me as you pass by
Reflect on why I had to die
So many young lives
Such senseless wars
We surrendered our future
So you could have yours
Thank you, Dean
illustration above left: In Happier Times
- on the beach, from left to right, Arthur, brother Tom,
sister Kay, and in front, mother Lavinia. Note the
shadow in the bottom right of the picture - perhaps this
is of Arthur's father, taking the picture. Photo by
courtesy of June and Howard Clarke.
illustration above right: article from
the Kentish Express(?), dated 18th September 1986,
kindly researched by Phil Evans
Arthur Clarke's picture is far right on the article.
RAF Fighter Command aircrew losses on Wednesday
11th September 1940
|
46 Squadron
Sgt S Andrew
Sgt W Peacock - missing |
92 Squadron
P/O F Hargreaves - missing
P/O H Edwards (pilot found in wreck on
7th October) |
213 Squadron
Sgt A Wojcicki - missing |
235 Squadron
(attd from Coastal to Fighter Command)
P/O Wickens-Smith - missing
P/O A Green - missing
Sgt R Watts - missing
Flt/Lt F Flood - missing
P/O N Shorrocks - missing
Sgt B Sharp - missing |
238 Squadron
Flt/Lt D Hughes - missing
Sgt S Duszynski - missing |
303 Squadron
F/O A Cebrzynski (dow 19th September)
Sgt S Wojtowicz |
602 Squadron
Sgt M Sprague (shot down over channel
near Selsey, body washed ashore at Brighton on 10th
October) |
611 Squadron
Sgt F Shepherd (evacuated with parachute
on fire, plummeted to death) |
504 Squadron
P/O A Clarke - missing
A total of 29 Fighter Command aircraft were shot down./written
off after combat. There were a further eight pilots wounded,
with injuries including burns and gunshot.
Coastal Command losses as shown above for 235
Squadron
Bomber Command lost four aircraft, with eight
aircrew killed on the night of 10th/11th
September 1940. On the night of 11th/12th
September, three aircraft were lost with fourteen aircrew killed.
United Kingdom fatal casualties this day
total 462, of whom 297 were civilians. Of the civilians eleven
were in Dover, which was both bombed and shelled simultaneously.
RAF information with
thanks to Dean Sumner
