CAPTAIN PETER CLARKE

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 100, 25 October 1916, Page 7

CAPTAIN PETER CLARKE

DIED OF WOUNDS.

CFROU OUR O^N CORRKSPOXDBNT.)

LONDON, 12th September. A particularly fine type of the many fine young men whom New Zealand has given to the British Army gave up his life in the first few weeks of the push. Captain P. Clarke, of the Trench Mortars; appeared in the casualty lists some weeks ago as having died from wounds. One London paper published a short obituary of a Capt. Patrick Clarke; but this did not allay my own anxiety, and it is now established that the officer who died of wounds at the end of July was in Teahty the young geologist from Temuka, brother of the well-known Alpine guide. Peter Clarke was a_young man of many parts and great enthusiasms. For some years he was engaged in the New Zealand Geological Survey, under Dr. J. M. Bell, and when the latter left the Dominion Mr. Clarke went to Canada as assistant manager ot some silver mines at Cobalt, Ontario. While there he paid several visits ,to England, and he also studied at M'Gill University. When the war broke out he joined, the O.T.C. at the latter institution, and in April last year he came to England and applied for a commission. This he obtained in the Wiltshire Regiment, with a battalion of which he continued his training for the remainder of 1915. He had been at the front since December, and had been most of the time associated with trench mortar batteries, the new role of danger and excitement which is rushed by so many adventurous spirits. In trench mortars Peter Clarke took a tremendous interest. In Christmas week he wrote : "Our own tiny unit did the best week's work it has yet done." "Go for trench mortars," his advice to everyone who proposed getting a commission. "It is the one satisfactory thing in trench life. You can smite Ti'ritz four to one. We have some great concentrations these days. It means a lot of time in the fire trenches, but life isn't at all bad. Mortal's are an increasingly effective force now, and they begin to belch H.E." In May he was appointed to the staff of the 13th Brigade for trench mortars, and the following month was promoted captain. He was then looking forward keenly to the "much more dashing work to come," and on the 17th July I had a final note written "before the show which we,enter -shortly. Everybody is very fit and cheery." ■

Witliin a few days of that he was wounded, and ho died shortly afterwards in a hospital in France. He was what one likes to regard as a colonial type— physically athletic, intellectually keen and 'clean-minded, with a tremendous enthusiasm in everything he touched. His interest in Ireland was the interest of an observant and not a bigoted Roman Catholic. He saw it after the rebellion, and deplored its "tragically unsettled state, which fears nothing and cares not what happens," and he was under no delusions as to the difficulty of a settlement. He saw, what other men are beginning to see to-day, that Sinn Fein was spreading as the result of the rebellion, and that the Nationalist Party consequently falls somewhat from its position as the representative of . Home Rule Ireland. The "Round Table" movement was another of his interests, and its leader used' to chaff goodhumouredly the New Zealander living in Canada, who came to France to fight the Germans, and yet seemed to. have a principal place in his heart for the wrongs of Ireland.

Mr. Clarke's brother is a sergeant in the Royal Flying Corps in France, and another is with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. . .