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 in Gateshead, moving from 52 Haydn Street to 14 Denmark Street.

John Stanley Clarke was born on 30th June 1887, their fourth child, after William Duncan, Florence Edith and Frederick Thomas, and before his younger siblings Frank Foskett, Foskett Pyburn, Eva Esther and Rena Bertha.

On 14th April 1911 John Stanley, his father William, and younger brother Foskett Pyburn arrived in the USA making for Vancouver in Canada. John remained there, whilst his father and brother returned home the following month. Working as an accountant, on 21st February 1916 John enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force giving his mother in Gateshead as his next of kin and becoming Private 331619 of the 62nd Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. John had obviously thought about enlisting as on 23rd November the previous year he had made out a will in favour of his youngest sister Bertha, and lodged it with a solicitor in Gateshead.

The SS Cameronia brought the 62nd to England, arriving in Liverpool in the middle of September 1916, and they were based at Witley Camp in Sussex. John was appointed Sergeant, transferred to the 15th Brigade CFA and posted to the 82nd Howitzer Battery and then in March 1917 was transferred to the 2nd Brigade CFA in France. After fighting at Vimy, John was hospitalised at Camiers with an ingrown toenail and was away from his unit for eight weeks, not rejoining them until 6th October at Sains-Bouvigny. The start of November saw them near Brandhoek in a sea of mud, “where every shell hole and dugout is full of water and a river flows between the road and the guns”. The war diary says “the mud in Flanders is in a class by itself as it boasts the most sticking qualities”.

It was in these conditions at Passchendaele that Sergeant 331619 John Stanley Clarke was killed on 4th November 1917. He is buried in Oxford Road British Cemetery, Ypres.

His brother Frank Foskett 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

John Stanley Clarke is remembered in Gateshead G39.004 page 95, G39.004 and G39.078

He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

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