Lieutenant-Colonel A.B.S. Clarke
9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

Both were extremely popular with the officers and men of the battalion and the loss was strongly felt by all. Lieutenant Colonel Clarke had always led from the front and there is little doubt he would have reached higher rank had he lived. Major Robinson was equally well liked. Tall and well built, he was easily recognisable and had built a fine reputation within the battalion.

(Harry Moses, The Gateshead Gurkhas, 253)

Born on 11 September 1906 Cuckfield, Sussex, Andrew Board Stephenson Clarke was a commissioned officer in the King’s Own Scottish Borders since 1926. He mobilized with the 8th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry as adjutant in September 1939. He was wounded by enemy bombing during the Blitz but continued to serve with the 8th DLI through to its deployment to the Middle East as part of 151st Infantry Brigade, 50th Division. He rose to second-in-command during the North Africa campaign.

Clarke transferred to the 9th DLI in July 1942, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel J.E.S. Percy on his promotion to 151st Brigade. He was wounded by a sniper during the Second Battle of El Alamein in early November but returned to duty before the end of the month. For leading an assault through a minefield under heavy fire on 21/21 March 1943, he earned the D.S.O.

In July 1943, the 9th DLI deployed in the invasion of Sicily, and experienced heavy fighting with “fanatic” German paratroopers. On 23 July, while conferring with his old unit, the 8th DLI at Fosso Bottaceto, a shell struck Clarke and his second-in-command Major Bill Robinson. Lieutenant George Person Chambers of the 8th DLI described the scene:

Andrew Clarke fell, and I rushed over. All I could see was that he had a tiny wound in his chest right over his heart. All he said was ‘My God, they got me,’ and died straight away. Bill Robinson was hit in the thigh, and he was rushed into an ambulance but couldn’t stop the blood coming from his main artery. And he died in the hospital van on the way back to the casualty station. So this was a tremendous tragedy to lose both of them in one fell swoop.

Shortly thereafter Lieutenant-Colonel Humphrey Woods arrived from 1st DLI to take over the 9th.