Mrs Betsey Clarke mother of the Two Clarke brothers who died in WW1. how she must have suffered the lost of two sons, John Robert Clarke. Joseph Thomas Clarke .i doubt that she was able to send a food parcel to her sons as she lived with her mother and father since her husband died at an early age.
The basic food that her two sons would have had at the beginning of WWI would have been tinned bully beef[corned beef] bread and dry hard biscuits. tea and sugar in a sealed tin only to be opened if told so by an officer.Sometimes bread was made with dried ground turnips.Bread was also made with sawdust and acorns and bran and ox blood. Horse meat was a regular source of protein.If families sent parcels to the troops , they would contain home knitted socks and tobacco and cigarettes and food.
Sometimes the parcels never got to the men.
They was allowed to write 2 letters per month, not more than 4 pages, and one postcard per week. When writing home they would ask for tobacco , papers,magazines. chocolate and other things.
The British soldiers were more lucky than the Russians army. They didnt receive any food parcels and was left to take any food from the rubbish bins .
Sometimes the soldiers worked away from the camp doing work on the farms. They was treated better and had more wholesome food and better housing arrangements.
MRS Betsey Clarke.BLISWORTH. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
She was a widow living with her parents . her daughter was in BERRYWOOD HOSPITAL. Her two sons John Robert and Joseph Thomas joined up for the WW1, and never came home. Her daughterMartha Sarah was live in housekeeper. her son,Alfred had joined up in the grenadier guards, but was under age, so was dismissed,
in December 2014 Betsy 3x great granddaughters Katie and Stephanie Austin are visiting BLISWORTH SCHOOL, Northampton to collect two poppies that the school children made . the two poppies are dedicated to JOHN ROBERT CLARKE and JOSEPH THOMAS CLARKE . The two young men were sons of BETSY CLARKE and her husband ROBERT CLARKE and both died in foreign countries.
This photo was taken at Doeberitz 8 miles from BERLIN.
Doeberitz Camp was called by the British men as ALDERSHOT of BERLIN.
John Robert Clarke had worked for British Railways at Fletton Peterborough as a Guard. He was called up by the goverment to leave his work and joined the British Army.
Around the edge of the camp was a barbed wire fence 3metres high. each wooden barrack housed 250 men.bunks beds of two beds had straw bedding as mattresses .
if the men misbehaved they was taken out side and tied to a tree and left there for two hours , no water or food.
The men was taken from the camp . maybe for work outside and marched through the towns and cities in Germany to Latvia.They wouldnt have had much energy with not eating a regular healthy meal anytime of the day.After 1915 a newspaper was set up for the inmates to see what was happening in the world.
I was born 1946 and WWII had finished 2 years before , and WWI had finished about 30 year before that.
All of my school life we was never told anything about the two world wars and only learnt from our parents and family about what went on.
Floods in Jegava. LATVIA . WWI.
Bridge destroyed by Russian Army to stop the Germans getting through.
Nov Georgiewsk.Eastern Front
WWI photos . jens olaf. flickr
Ambulance owned by the Germans.used 1915-1917 in LATVIA or LITHUANIA WWI.EASTERN FRONT.
miners at Blisworth quarry.Maybe a Clarke member among them.
Photos of some of the Clarke family from Blisworth. Northamptonshire.
above. 1906. Alfred Clarke wedding to Gertrude Rose. bridesmaid. Martha Sarah Clarke .best man John Robert clarke or his brotherJoseph Thomas Clarke
More about Gertrude Rose . her 4th cousin John Rose married Ann Stephenson the niece of George Stephenson. [ the father of the railways]
below. John Robert Clarke . who was captured and marched from Normandy to Latvia and imprisoned there. He died there and is buried in a small grave yard among his other colleagues. He sent this postcard home to his mother Betsey Clarke who was a widow and lived with her parents and son Alfred. Daughter Annie was in St Crispins mental home. both sons died in WWI.
Martha was working away in Worcester as a ladies maid. Shortly after she returned to live in Blisworth near her parents.She lived in her own cottage near the Elm Tree at Blisworth where she kept chickens and a cat.she was a nice lady but able to stand up for herself. For many year she had a male member of the family living with her.As she got older she didnt go out much but working in the cottage and garden. Her shopping was delivered to her by school boys on the grocery shop bike with a large basket at the front.She used to preserve eggs in a bucket under the stairs.
Alfred Henry Clarke.Who married Gertrude Rose from Belton Loughborough Leicestershire. While he was working on the railways in the Loughborough area he seen two ladies walking along side the canal. he took a liking to Gertrude and ask her out. They married and lived at Blisworth all their lives. They had Nellie, Jack. George and Fred.
Nellie married and divorced with no children.
Jack married Charlotte James and had a son , who died young and is buried in a village near by
George married Sylvia Joyce Watts Gulliver from Glebe farm Blisworth. she was his second choice. his first choice was her sister Nancy Mary Gulliver, she wouldnt marry him. George Henry Clarke and Sylvia[ Joyce] had two girls. Susan and Sylvia. they each married and had families.Susan had three girls and two boys and seven grandchildren. sylvia had two boys and grandchildren.Even though two of the Clarke male members died. there is still one grandson who carries the Clarke surname onwards.
Albert . France. Joseph Thomas Clarke died and is buried near Bronfay farm Albert.
While checking out information about the Clarke brothers who died in WWI, i came across another member of our family . Gertrude Rose married Alfred Clarke. It was one of her brothers John Albert Rose,b 1870 that died in WWI
.His brother Herbert Rose emigrated to New Zealand.
John Albert Rose joined the PRINCE OF WALES VOLUNTEERS [south lancs reg] 7TH BATTALION . NO 31290. formerly of S.STAFFS REGT. 25286.He died 1/11/1916 in France/ Elanders. He is buried in ST SEVER CEMETERY ROUEN.EXTENSION.PART IV.Private John Albert Rose. 7th Bat.South Lancs Reg. [o.1.q
John Robert Clarke d Latvia .
Joseph Thomas Clarke d France
John Albert Rose.d Flanders 1/11/1916
Great Uncles of Susan Clarke . R.I.P. DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY
ST SEVER CEMETERY.ROUEN FRANCE
Also among the dead in this cemetery are Private Henry Gulliver[d.1917 of Stockton Rugby.son of THOMAS & Mary Gulliver..
Other men who died in WWI from Blisworth that are connected to the Clarke family . Cecil William Ayres born 1890 died 1918 WWI.Havrincourt France.He was brother of Edgar Thomas Ayres.who was a friend of the Clarke family . Edgar`s daughter Pamela Ayres was Susan Clarke`s God mother.
Cecil William Ayres was wounded by shrapnel in his leg. He was killed in France by a sniper in 1918
