George Roy Clarke was born on 6th June 1928 at Whitley and baptised at Lower Whitley on 15th July that year. He was the son of George William Clarke, who was born at Comberbach and his wife May (nee Cotterill) who was born at Whitley. The Cotterill family had lived many years on Pillmoss Lane in Whitley and Hatton.
The Clarkes already had one son called Charles Eaton who was born in 1919.
At the time of the 1939 Register Roy was living on Chapel Lane in Whitley. The father was a railway goods shunter and a voluntary member of the railway Air Raid Precautions Unit. May ran the household and Charles was a porter and signalman on the railway and a volunteer for the St John’s Ambulance. Roy was at school. They lived next door to Pillmoss Farm, where Edward Clarke was the farmer.
An R. Clarke was mentioned in an article in the Warrington Guardian on June 15th 1946 which described Victory Celebrations in Preston Brook. This may have been Roy Clarke.
Sadly, George Roy Clarke died on 23rd June 1947 in Egypt and has a grave in the Fayid War Cemetery at Al Isma’iliyah in Egypt. He had only been 11 years old when the war started but would have left school by 1945. At some point he had joined the Royal Engineers as a sapper with the number 19000707 and was working in the 1001 Port Operating Company, maintaining and servicing port equipment.
George Roy Clarke was 19 years old when he passed away.
