Private Henry Clarke
- Rank
- Private
- Service number
- 3082A
- Unit
- 28 Battalion
- Cause of death
- Killed in Action
- Place of death
- France
- Date of death
- 9 October 1917
- Age
- 28
- Plaque number
- M488
- Co-located plaques
- M488A - PTE Edwin Powell
- Dedicated by
- Family on 19 May 2012
- More information
Biography presented during plaque dedication:
Private Henry Clarke of 28 Battalion, or Dukes, as he was known, was born in in 1889 at Nabawa, a farming community in the Chapman Valley near Geraldton, Western Australia.
His parents were James Clarke from Waterford in Ireland and Margaret Gallagher, the daughter of a retired soldier who came from Scotland as an enrolled pensioner guard travelling to Australia to guard convicts sent to Western Australia.
Henry had three brothers and seven sisters and lived with his family in Geraldton and began his schooling there.
The family later moved to the gold mining town of Day Dawn in the Murchison.
The parents later returned to Geraldton and three of the boys stayed and worked as miners, the other was a butcher.
'Dukes' enlisted in Geraldton in July 1916 and commenced training with 7 Reinforcements of 5 Pioneer Battalion at Belmont.
The unit embarked at Fremantle in November 1916 on HMAT Argyllshire and arrived at Devonport in January 1917.
They commenced training at Salford then at the Pioneer Training Battalion at Parnham Downs.
In July 1917, he was transferred to 28 Battalion and later sailed from England to France.
Private Henry Clarke, service number 3082A of 28 Battalion, was killed in action in France on 9 October 1917. He was 28 years of age.
His plaque his placed alongside a relative through marriage, Private Edwin Powell of 51 Battalion, who died in August 1918. Henry's brother James married Ivy Alice Clarke, Edwin's sister-in-law.