Service: 2nd Battalion, The Royal Hampshire Regiment
Service No: 8596
Date & place of birth: 1890 in Eastbourne, Sussex
Date & place of death: 28 April 1915 (aged 24/25) in Gallipoli
Frederick Clark was born in Eastbourne but by 1901 he was living at Sandhill, Rogate with his parents, two brothers and paternal grandmother.
Family background
Frederick Charles Clark was born in Eastbourne in 1890. He was the eldest of three sons of Frederick Clark, who was born in Middlesex, a coachman/groom, and his wife Ann, who was born in Rogate.
In 1901 the family lived at Sandhill close to Mizzards Farm. Frederick Clark [senior] was a groom/gardener while Frederick Charles was at school. The youngest son William [aged 8] had been born in Brighton so it is possible the family lived there for a time after moving from Eastbourne and before coming to Rogate.
By 1911 Frederick Charles had joined the 2nd Battalion Royal Hampshire Regiment. His parents and younger brother Samuel had moved to Nyewood and both father and son were employed as jobbing gardeners.
Military service
Frederick enlisted in Winchester into the 2nd Battalion Royal Hampshire Regiment sometime before 1911 as on the date of the Census in April of that year he was with the Regiment either in South Africa or Mauritus. In 1911 the Regiment transferred from South Africa, where it had been since 1907, to Mauritus. Later, in 1913, the Regiment moved to Mhow in India before returning home in 1914, arriving in Plymouth on 22 December. It then moved to Romsey before going to Stratford-on-Avon on 13 February 1915 where it joined the 88th Brigade of the 29th Division before moving to Warwick.
Death and commemoration
On 29 March 1915 the Regiment mobilised for war and embarked for Gallipoli from Avonmouth via Alexandria. On 25 April the Regiment landed at Gallipoli and Frederick was killed three days later. His final resting place is unknown.
Frederick Charles Clark is commemorated on the Helles Memorial at Canakkale, Turkey and on Rogate war memorial.