Name
Oliver Sidney Clarke
1898
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
30/11/1917
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Rifleman
A/201237
King's Royal Rifle Corps
10th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CAMBRAI MEMORIAL, LOUVERVAL
Panel 9.
France
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Letchworth memorials, Plaque, St .,Mary the Virgin, Gt. Shelford, Cambs.,
Pre War
Oliver Sidney Clarke was born in Letchworth in 1898 to Walter Clarke, shepherd, and Louisa (nee Wilson).
On the 1901 Census the family of parents, Daisy Joy (born 1896) and Oliver Sidney were living at College Farm, Duxford, Cambs.
On the 1911 Census the family were living at Shelford Bottom, Cherry Hinton, Cambs.
Wartime Service
No Service Record was found for Sidney. He was enlisted at Bury Sr Edmunds as Private 34710 in the Suffolk Regiment and likely transferred to the Training Reserve on its Formation, in Sep 1916 as TR/13/21065, 13 Battalion. Having graduated from training he was posted to Kings Royal Rifle Corps as Private 201237in the 10th (Service) Battalion and joined them in France. Sidney may have taken part in some of the later Battles of the Somme as part of the 59th Brigade, 20th (Light) Division. In 1917 they participated in the Battles of 3rd Ypres (Passchendaele) at Langemarck (16-18 Aug), Menin Road Ridge (20-25 Sep), Polygon Wood (26 Sep-3 Oct) before being deployed to the Cambrai Sector to take part in the Battles of Cambrai at the Tank Attack (20-21 Nov), Bourlon Wood (23-28 Nov), and the German Counter Attack (30 Nov-3 Dec). Sidney was killed in this last action on 30 Nov 1917, his remains were not recovered and he is remembered on the Cambrai Memorial.
Additional Information
War Gratuity of £5 10s and arrears of £7 1s 3d was paid to his mother.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild
