Photo: Geordie at War Project

In Gateshead East Cemetery is a family headstone which reads:

In memory of
Thomas Goodley
died 24th November 1871
age 45 years.
John James Goodley, son
died 25th February 1878, age 28 years.
Eliza Goodley, widow,
died 15th July 1899, in her 70th year.
Sgt. J. Stanley Clarke,
killed in action Nov. 4th 1917 age 30
and
Clifford Goodley,
died Jan. 25th 1918, age 17, grandsons
Also
Pte. Frank F. Clarke
died of wounds Sept. 29th 1918
aged 35, grandson
Annie Crear Goodley,
died 26th Nov. 1929, age 62 years.
wife of
Wm. Charles Goodley,
died 28th October 1938 age 71 years.

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:

William Clarke, an engine maker from Sunderland married Ann Goodley in Holy Trinity Church, Gateshead on 28th November 1874 and they went on to live and raise a family of five sons and three daughters, William Duncan, Florence Edith, Frederick Thomas, John Stanley, Frank Foskett, Foskett Pyburn, Eva Esther and Rena Bertha, whilst living firstly in Haydn Street and then Denmark Street in Gateshead. Frank was their fourth child born on 10th August 1883 and by 1901 he was working as a junior clerk in a coat fitter’s office. On 11th February 1911 Frank and his older brother Fred arrived in New York on board the SS Campania with the intention of making for Vancouver and two months later were joined by father William and two more of his brothers.

May 1915 saw Frank return to England, having crossed the border from Canada to the US and sailed from New York to Liverpool on the Cunard liner SS Orduna. Frank did not enlist in the British Army, but travelled to the Canadian camp at Seaford, Sussex on 2nd August 1917 to enlist in the Expeditionary Force, where having duly attested, he became Private 78034 and was taken on the strength of the 1st Canadian Reserve Battalion. On 24th November, three weeks after the death of his older brother at Passchendaele, he was posted to the front line with the 29th Battalion, and then a month later joined the 7th Battalion, with whom he saw action on the Somme.

It was during the action at the Canal du Nord that Frank was wounded. The Circumstance of Casualty report reads “during the advance at the Bourlon Wood operations on 27th September 1918 he was shot in the leg by an enemy machine gun bullet, the wound was immediately dressed and he was evacuated to No.2 Casualty Clearing Station where he died two days later”. His medical notes state that the wound was to his upper thigh and abdomen. Private 78034 was one of over 200 men from the Battalion who were killed in that action. He is buried in Bucquoy Road British Cemetery at Ficheux.

His brother John Stanley Clarke also died during the Great War.

Their sister Rena Bertha Clarke added the following words to their Commonwealth War Headstones:-Blessed are the pure in heart For they shall see God.

Acknowledgements: Brenda McMahon

Frank Foskett Clarke is remembered in Gateshead on G39.004 page 95, G39.051 and G39.078

He is also remembered in the Canadian Book of Remembrance and on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Clarke