William was the son of Gordon and Janet Clark of No. 42, Park Rd., Dudley, lost aboard HMS Bulwark when she exploded alongside at Sheerness on 26th November 1914, aged 22.
AB Clark joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Entrant in October 1910 on a 12-year engagement. He specialised in electrical engineering. He first went to sea when still a Boy 1st Class aboard HMS Jupiter, a pre-Dreadnought battleship before transferring to HMS Swiftsure (also a pre-Dreadnought) and eventually becoming rated Able Seaman in May 1912.
After a brief period aboard the cruiser HMS Grafton he then went to the shore-based “stone frigate” HMS Vernon, the Royal Navy’s Torpedo School.
The Torpedo Branch were responsible for all the ship’s electrical systems. Joining the Dreadnought battleship HMS Bulwark on 1st January 1913, he was aboard when the ship was destroyed in a catastrophic explosion.
In the absence of an identifiable body for burial his name appears on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. His name is carved on the walls of Dudley's civic war memorial in Priory St, and also on the memorial at St James, Eve Hill.
(This story is based on his entry in the book “Dudley’s 1914-1918 War Memorial and the Men commemorated – 2nd Revised & Expanded Edition” by J. B. E. Hale. The book is published by Amazon, and there is also a Kindle version.)
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