The son of Arthur Clarke (-1934),[2][3] and Rebecca Ann Clarke (-1940), née Cooke,[4][5][6] Thornton Gainsborough Clarke was born in
Essendon, Victoria on 27 November 1891.
He married Annie Muriel Walker (1889–1976) on 16 June 1915.[7][8]
Their son, Thornton Vernon Clarke – later, Flight Lieutenant Thornton Vernon Clarke, DFC (408954) – was born on 4 March 1916, after Clarke had left Australia with the First AIF.[9]
Football
Fitzroy (VFL)
Granted a permit from Mount Lyell to Fitzroy on 17 May 1911,[10] 19-year-old Clarke played four First XVIII games for Fitzroy in the
1911 VFL season.
In 1913 and 1914 he was the VFA's leading goalkicker, with 58 and 46 goals respectively.
Military service
Qualified as an electrical engineer, and employed at G. Weymouth Pty. Ltd., Electrical Engineers, in Richmond,[11] he enlisted in the First AIF in July 1915, and served with the
60th Infantry Battalion.
Initially listed as "missing",[18][19] he was officially declared "killed in action", by a Court of Enquiry held in France on 4 August 1917.[20]
Buried in a mass grave at the time of his death, his remains were never recovered, and he is commemorated at the
V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial in Fromelles, France.