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12/01/1886 - 26/11/1914

Place of birth: Bromley, Kent
Last known address in Bromley: 94 Tweedy Road

Military information

Regiment/Service: Royal Navy
Battalion/Ship: HMS Bulwark
Rank: Signalman
Number: 218665

Family information

Parents: Charles & Margaret Clarke (nee Murphy)
Parents' occupation: Gardener
Siblings: Edith Sarah, Margaret, William Edward, Eleanor Alice, Emily Mary, Edwin Albert
Relatives on War Memorial: CLARKE, E.A.

Census information

1891
Address: 14 Tylney Road
1901
Address: 1 Paynes Cottages, Walter's Yard
Occupation: Errand boy
1911
Address: Navy

Extra details

Charles was the fourth of Charles and Margaret Clarke's eight children.

Charles joined the Navy on 12th January 1904, his 18th birthday. He was 5ft 5½ins, had auburn hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. His previous occupation was as a gardener.

Charles died when, at 7.50am on 26th November 1914, a massive explosion ripped through HMS Bulwark when moored in the Medway Estuary. The subsequent naval court of enquiry found that shells and other ammunition had been stored in the corridors between the magazines, and that a fault with one of the shells or overheating cordite near a boiler room bulkhead could have started a chain reaction which destroyed the ship. The CWGC records 788 men who lost their lives, just a handful survived.