John was educated at Ballymena Academy; at Queen’s College, Belfast and at Edinburgh University, qualifying L.R.C.P., L.R.C.S. & L.F.P.S. in 1906. When war broke, he was living and practicing at Hillcroft, Aberbargoed, Monmouthshire. He gained a commission at the rank of Lieutenant in the R.A.M.C. (T.F.) on 24th October 1914, then served as medical officer to the 3rd Bn. Monmouthshire Regiment. He was subsequently promoted to Captain, and entered the war in Gallipoli on 9th August 1915 with the 1/1st Welsh Field Ambulance. According to the unit war diary on 17th September 1915: “Mules moved to a position immediately east of the sea front on ‘B’ Beach south east of Hill 10. The hospital tent was left in its original site and was fired upon by the Turks, Lieut. Clarke being mortally wounded. Four Australians were also hit and one who had been admitted for dysentery. The enemy appeared to be trying to get the range of a wagon drawn by six horses, which had passed near by.” A letter written to his family stated: “While attending to a patient in the dressing-shed he was hit, and those with him were wounded, as the shell burst right over our post, and while trying to save the lives of others he received his fatal wounds. He was conscious during the short time he lived, and his only thoughts were for others. He had very little pain, but the huge loss of blood made his case quite hopeless from the first, and he knew it.... He only lived half an hour after he was wounded, and last evening at 7 o’clock we laid him to rest on the seashore.” John was the third son of William and Mary Clarke of High Street, Ballymena, Co. Antrim. He never married. [Portrait photograph of John from the Ballymena Observer, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson]