The Soldier's Details

Nobby was part of A Coy No. 4 Platoon

Nobby Clarke was recovered from Maibara 10/9/1945.  He entrained for Yokohama 11/9/1945 where he boarded U.S.S. Goodhue for Manila.

He arrived in Sydney 13/10/1945 onboard HMS Formidable and travelled by troop train to Perth.

Copy of a photo of Nobby sent to his good friend Sparrow Tysoe’s  family. At the end of the war it was Nobby who brought back Sparrow’s meagre possessions after he had passed away at Kobe, Japan to give to Sparrow’s wife, Eileen.

Nobby was a member of ‘J’ Force transported from Singapore to Japan to a POW Camp at Kobe mid 1943. Some of the details of Kobe House are found at the story Kobe House, Japan.

Also about ‘J’ Force and ‘Wales Maru’ 

Please read Jack Ramsbottom’s (later Lane) Diary

Jerry Arthur WX9011 was also at same camp Japan.

Maibara Camp, Japan. Australian soldiers of 8th Division who were prisoners of war (POWs) at the Maibara POW Camp in the Osaka area. These men suffered many hardships, being poorly clad in winter and receiving very short rations of rice. They had been POWs for three years and eight months, and had recently been receiving supplies of rations and clothes dropped by parachute from B29 bombers and US Navy aircraft. Left to right, back: Driver Steve Bell of Beechworth, Vic; Driver Dick Ashcroft of Parramatta, NSW; Private (Pte) Fraser Butland of Corryong, Vic; Gunner A. Barnard of Mackay, Qld. Third row: Pte Luke Carey of Randwick, NSW; Pte Jerry Arthur of Mount Lawley, WA; Pte Greg Barklimore of Cobar, NSW; Pte Leo Bond of Gladesville, NSW; Pte Stand Black of Glebe, NSW; Pte John Carey of Randwick, NSW; Pte E. C. Bray of Forbes, NSW; Sergeant H. A. Burton of Surrey, England (the sergeant has been with Australians since his catpure); Pte Bill Banister of Parkville, NSW. Second Row: Pte Keith Astill of Cessnock, NSW; Pte Ray Brown of Bankstown, NSW; Corporal (Cpl) Ron Baxter of Stockton, NSW; Pte Ted Anderson of Cairns, Qld; Pte Robert Bridges of Breadalbane, NSW; Pte E. J. Clarke of Walpole, WA; Gunner Walter Bird of Townsville, Qld; Pte Albert Armstrong of Sydney, NSW; Cpl Bert Bowtell of Lawson, NSW; Pte Les Cook of Tamworth, NSW; Lieutenant Frank Pringle of Canterbury, NSW; Pte John Byrnes of Parramatta, NSW; Pte Phil Burley of Burnie, Tas.

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Nobby was one of 12 children born to his parents James Clarke and Alice Sarah Elizabeth Leggerton who married 1895 Tollesbury, Essex, England.  He was known as Ted to his family.

Nobby set sail for Australia from England arriving November 1920 from London on ‘Orontes’ he would have been about 18 years of age.  He had arranged accommodation at the YMCA Murray Street, Perth.  None of Nobby’s siblings left /England.  He was quite brave!

In 1929 he married Ida Moseley Nichols.

As we read above, Ida and John Clarke acquired their farm at North Walpole before he enlisted and sailed for Singapore in fact he was the father of 4 children.  He would never have envisaged being gone for 31/2 years!

In the Electoral Rolls for 1936, 1937, 1954, 1958, 1963 Nobby and Ida are farming at North Walpole.  In 1980 they are living Walpole in vista Street, their house named ‘Tollesbury’ – where his family lived in England.

Nobby Clarke passed away in 1985 aged 82 years and is buried at Walpole Cemetery with his wife Ida.