Maurice Thomas Clarke

A Private with 648 Mechanical Transport Company, Maurice died on 19th of January 1918 at the age of 29. 

Maurice was born at Walton, Suffolk, in 1889, a son of Thomas and Caroline Clarke. In 1891 his family lived at High Street, Walton. By 1901 they were living at the Old Market, Kessingland. In 1911 they lived at High Street, Kessingland, and Maurice worked with his father as a cycle and motor engineer. 

Maurice enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Army Service Corps, service number DM2/209838.

On 25 October 1916 Maurice married Hilda May Utting at Saint Edmund’s Church, Kessingland. Maurice was a motor mechanic with the Army Service Corps, and Hilda lived at Kessingland. Later Hilda lived at Beaconsfield Place, Kessingland Beach, and then at 2 Lerwick Villas, Kessingland Beach. She married William Boddy in 1922. 

At some point Maurice was posted to 648 Mechanical Transport Company in East Africa. During the war around 4,000 men served with the Army Service Corps in East Africa and around 50% of these became casualties because of tropical disease, particularly malaria. 

Maurice died, at 2nd South African General Hospital, Dar es Salaam from dysentery and mumps contracted on active service.