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| 13 Aug 2022 | |
| Obituaries |
1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment
Regimental motto: Spectamur Agendo (By our deeds we are known)
Major Clarke completed his recruit infantry training with the King's Own Regiment, followed by a posting and service with the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment in Khartoum, Gebeit (Zululand) and Port Suez during 1950. From 1951-52 he was on active service with the Battalion during the Suez Canal crisis stationed at Moascar, located in a tented camp pitched on a bleak and inhospitable stretch of desert. With his Infantry rifle company (B company), he was involved in the Ismailia Police Station attack 1 and occupation with the Lancashire Fusiliers, supported by the 4th Royal Tank Regiment, 2 with casualties on both sides, particularly from the terrorists. His infantry rifle company located their Headquarters and three rifle sections at RAF Mansion in the centre of Ismailia, where they guarded and patrolled the area with the Parachute Regiment. a posting to Aqaba followed for 3 months before his return to the Suez Canal zone.
B Company, East Lancashire Regiment, was the first Infantry Company to guard and patrol the el Firdan Bridge during the crisis, followed by patrolling tel-el-Kebir, and Timsah Lake along the Suez Canal and indeed the squalid Sweet Water Canal, 3 living in foxholes and feeding from the appalling dehydrated compo rations which were completely tasteless and inedible. The Foe was forever mysterious, dangerous and barbaric, and daily living conditions were extremely primitive, mentally and physically challenging. Loss of life was, and still is, extremely upsetting.
The proud and honoured traditions of the East Lancashire Regiment and now shared with the amalgamation of the South Lancashire Regiment and the Loyal Regiment now the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
On leaving the regular army from National Service Call-up and commissioned at Mon's Officer Cadet School, the Territorial Army was obligatory for a period, and so Major Clarke continue to serve for a total of 47 years with postings to HQ 125 Infantry Brigade, 4th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment TA, 4th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment TA, Lancastrian Volunteers TAVR, 5/8 Kings TA, HQ Northwest District, Central Volunteers HQ Royal Artillery Woolwich, and the Regular Army Reserve of Officers, concurrently with his appointment at Liverpool college in 1957.
Major Clarke held a military appointment as Staff Officer Public Relations at HQ Northwest District involving attachments to HQ Western Command, the Ministry of Defence, HQ United Kingdom Land Forces, and HQ British Army of the Rhine, the British Embassy in Bonn and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Major Clarke has also been on attachment as a small arms and Infantry Training Instructor at Sandhurst and on several occasions as a Directing Staff Officer at the cadet training centre at Frimley Park. He was a qualified Top Rope Climbing and Abseiling Instructor and a champion rifle marksman individual winner, 3 consecutive years, 1983 - 1985, open to all ranks at the Northwest District Skill at Arm's Meeting. As a subaltern, he received and laid up the New and Old colours of the 4th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment in 1963. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1967 and Bar 1975.
He joined the staff at Liverpool College an independent school in 1957 to organise and develop their Combined Cadet Force and later, in a joint appointment assisting the Bursar. Retiring in 1997, he enjoyed his time at the college with much pride and affection and enthusiastically shared its aim and values of a rounded education, personal development, leadership, discipline and academic achievement. A keen sportsman, he represented the Army XI and his Battalion at football and was on Liverpool Football Club's books for 2 years, followed by a season with Bangor City Football Club.
Walter bonded an extremely healthy camaraderie and warm friendship with many Lerpoolians and parents over 40 plus years, which he treasured daily together with his love for his recently departed wife, Wyn.
Links to additional information
1. Lancashire Fusiliers Official Website inc. history of campaigns
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