Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of John Lewis and Margaret CLARKE; husband of Jessie E. CLARKE, of Marama Street, Frankton Junction, Auckland, New Zealand.

 
#597 CLARKE Harold Kennard  12th machine Gun Company
 
Harry Clarke was born in Maungakaramea, a farming community near Whangarei, NZ on the Northland Peninsula to parents John and Margaret Clarke around 1880. He attended the local public school and then in all likelihood went into farming in the area. He enlisted in the New Zealand Mounted Rifles which was part of the New Zealand contingent to the Second Boer War in South Africa. According to Harry’s wife, Jessie, Harry served as a sergeant in that unit and he was awarded the Queens’s South Africa Medal with four clasps denoting significant actions.
 
It is likely that by 1910, Harry had married and emigrated with his wife to Queensland where he took up farming in the Eight Mile Plains area. By 1916, it appears that Harry was sugar cane farming on the Maroochy River while his wife remained in the Eight Mile Plains area.
 
Harry presented himself for enlistment at Adelaide Street Depot on 10th April 1916. He stated he was 36 years old, a farmer of Eight Mile Plains (although that may not be entirely accurate). Harry named his wife, Jessie Elizabeth of Eight Mile Plains as his next of kin. It seems that he had at least one child, a son, William Lewis and there may have been others who are not recorded in the official files.
 
Harry was originally placed in a depot battalion at Enoggera but in June 1916 he was sent to Corporal School. A period of home leave from 19th to 22nd October allowed Harry to arrange his affairs, during which he made out his will in a bank office in Nambour, stating he was farmer in the Maroochy District. Upon returning to Enoggera, Harry was posted to the machine gun depot at Fort Lytton and then travelled to Seymour in Victoria on 6th December to train in the use of the Vickers heavy machine gun.
 
Harry was allocated to the 12th Machine Gun Company and embarked on the “Osterley” on 14th February 1917 for overseas service. The embarkation roll shows that Harry had allocated 4/- of his daily 5/- pay to his wife and children.
Upon arrival in Plymouth, the gunners were posted to Grantham depot near Nottingham. On 26th June, Harry travelled to Folkstone to take a ferry across the English Channel to the gunnery school at Camiers, close to the large British training and transit depot at Etaples on the French Coast.
 
In September 1917, Harry and 21 other reinforcements were taken on strength by the 7th M G Company in Ypres in Belgium. The 7th M G Coy was attached to the 7th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Division of the AIF. The 2nd Division had previously been engaged in a successful attack in the Battle of Menin Road. Harry had his first taste of action on the 4th October when the machine gunners supported an attack by the 7th Infantry Brigade on Broodseinde Ridge. In the beginning of November, the gunners were again supporting the infantry in the mud at Passchendaele before the entire Flanders campaign was closed down for the winter.
 
Throughout the winter of 1917/18, the machine gunners spent time in billets at Penzance Camp and Brunembert, training, cleaning and repairing equipment interspersed with short periods in the defensive line at Warneton. The company were still in billets in Belgium in March when the Germans launched Operation Michael along the valley of the Somme, recapturing towns and villages which had been so hard won by the British forces in 1916. So rapid was the German advance that the British 5th Army broke in the face of the onslaught and the road to Amiens and the channel ports lay open.
 
In a desperate move, the British commander in France, Douglas Haig ordered his best troops, the five divisions of the AIF, to make their way south from their billets in Belgium to meet the German advance and defend the vital city of Amiens. In the first week of April 1918, the 7th M G Coy journeyed independently by bus train and lorries to take positions in the triangle formed at the confluence of the Ancre and Somme Rivers. This country had never been part of a major battle and there were precious few trenches or dugouts for the Australians to occupy when they arrived at La Neuville.
 
The German advance was finally halted by two brigades of Australian infantry at Villers Bretonneux on 25thApril but the two opposing forces continued to face each other employing harassing artillery. In May, the 7thMG Coy in support of the 7th Infantry moved up towards the village of Ville sur Ancre where the company war diary recorded that on 25th May the gunners were subjected to an artillery barrage of high explosive and mustard gas for three and a half hours.
 
Harry Clarke was on of a number of men who had to be taken out of the line suffering from the effects of mustard gas. He was taken to the hospital at Etaples on 25th May and then transferred to a hospital ship to be admitted to the Town Hall Hospital at Torquay. One month later Harry was discharged to the Australian Hospital at Harefield where he remained until 11th July. Upon discharge, Harry reported to the base depot at Sutton Veney where he was reallocated to the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion. On 12th September, he recrossed the English Channel and went into camp at the Gunnery School at Camiers. Three days later, Harry was taken on strength by the 2nd MG Battalion.
 
In the three months that Harry had been away from the front, things had changed dramatically. Following the resounding victory by the British forces in the Battle of Amiens in August (spearheaded by four divisions of the AIF), the German offensive had turned into a retreat. Haig ordered his corps commanders to pursue the enemy relentlessly as large numbers of enemy soldiers surrendered and much equipment was captured. Much of that captured equipment ended up adorning parks and war memorials throughout Australia.
 
When Harry joined the 2nd MG Battalion, preparations were well advanced for an all-out push against the famous Hindenburg Line. During an attack on the Hindenburg Outpost Lines at Bellicourt on 3rd October, Harry Clarke sustained a shell wound to his upper arm and side. He was taken by stretcher to the 5thAustralian Field Ambulance at Templeux le Guerard where succumbed to his wounds and died at 9:30pm that night.
 
Harry was buried in the Templeux le Guerard Cemetery close to the Field Ambulance. His wife received a packet of personal items including a purse, wallet, photos, pocketknife, two identity discs and the South Africa War Ribbon. The accumulated pay was distributed to Jessie, but in the conditions of a will made out in August 1918, the land at Maroochy was gifted to his eldest son, William. By 1922, Jessie had remarried and returned to New Zealand.