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William Llewellyn CLARKE was Private 328049 in the 12th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. He was killed on the 24th November 1917, aged 40. He was born in 1877 and is recorded in the 1911 census as an agricultural labourer living in The Street, Hacheston. At that time he was aged 33 and had a wife (Ellen Rose) aged 25 and a daughter (Mildred May) aged 10 months. His grandson visited Hacheston church on 1 November 2017 to pay his respects and mentioned that his grandfather "was in the 'bantam brigade' of soldiers recruited after the height requirement was reduced from 5'3" to 5 feet".
William is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval. On 20th November 1917, the British Third Army launched an attack towards Cambrai. The method of assault was new, with no preliminary artillery bombardment. Instead, a large number of tanks were used in significant force.
The Cambrai Memorial stands on an elevated terrace in Louverval Military Cemetery in Louveral, France. It commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen from Britain and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai whose graves are not known. The following is a link to William's page on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website from where you can download William's Commemorative Certificate.
David Clough and Richard Ginn
Autumn 2017