Edward Clarke was born in Darlington, Durham on 7th April 1918 and was the son of Major Joseph Clarke and Muriel Clarke. The 1921 Census shows his mother, he and four siblings living 42 Greenbank Road, Darlington with his four siblings all being born in India possibly due to their father being an Army officer there. His mother died when he was young. Edward received a short service commission in the RAF and was granted the rank of Acting P/O on probation with effect from and seniority of 25th January 1937. He was confirmed in the rank of P/O on an unknown date and rose to F/O on 16th July 1939. Edward married Constance Bird, who was from Easton on the Hill near Stamford, in June 1939 and she was pregnant at the time Edward was killed in this flying accident on the North Yorkshire Moors in May 1940. He was flying as second pilot when Wellington R3154 came down on the North Yorkshire Moors and was sadly killed in the crash. He was twenty two years old. His widow would give birth to a baby boy, then also named Edward Joseph Taylor Clarke on 31st December 1940. Edward would have been buried under his wife's arrangements in Stamford Cemetery. His name is on the War Memorial at Easton on the Hill where his wife was from, and his name is also commemorated on the War memorial in Easton Church. The photographs below show the village war memorial and the plaque in the village church. His casualty file lists his father as being Major Joseph Clarke, who was living in Southsea in 1940.
I thank his nephew Mr Michael Clarke for contacting me in November 2011 and for kindly supplying the photograph of him shown above.
Edward Clarke's grave in Stamford Cemetery.
The War Memorial in Easton on the Hill and the plaque in the church shown below.
