Roland Arbuthnot Clark

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Commander Roland Arbuthnot Clark, O.B.E., R.N.. (15 July, 1888 – 1 February, 1926) served in the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

Born in Rathture, Maghera County, Derry.

Clark was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 15 September, 1909 and contributed to good torpedo firing in the destroyer Ure later that year. On 9 August, 1910 he was appointed to spend two years in the battleship Cornwallis which was operating in the Mediterranean. He was thanked for contributing to her strong showing in heavy and light gunlaying tests in 1912.

Clark was appointed to the second class protected cruiser Astræa in April, 1913 and was made her gunnery officer in July, 1913. At some indeterminate date, perhaps in this appointment, Clark was thanked by S.N.O. [illeg] for his work in operating as 12-pdr gun, perhaps on sand. He left the ship in mid 1916 to return to England, and in mid September was appointed in command of the sweeping sloop Daphne.

Clark was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 15 September, 1917. At the end of the month, he was appointed to Cyclops, additional, for special service on the staff of Admiral Commanding, Orkneys and Shetlands, Admiral Frederic E. E. Brock. Other, shore-based service saw him from Christmas 1917 through the end of the war. Admiral Brock thanked him for his work in establishing convoys in Scandanavian waters, and he was be awarded an O.B.E. in 1919 for this same service, but in October 1918 he was hospitalised for a duodenal ulcer.

In January–March 1919, he was gunnery officer in light cruiser Birkenhead and he commanded the river gunboat Woodlark in 1919–1921, leaving Hong Kong in S.S. Khyber on 18 April, 1921.

Clark was promoted to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1923. Later that year, he was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy for two years, ending in September, 1925, though he actually left Melbourne in S.S. Nestor on 6 June, 1925. In July, he was admitted to Chatham hospital. Though he was appointed to Pembroke as Staff Officer, Operations at the end of the year, he was not in good health.

Clark died at Royal Navy Hospital, Chatham of complications of a gastric ulcer.

See Also

Bibliography

Naval Appointments
Preceded by
Gerald H. Thomson
Captain of H.M.S. Daphne
16 Sep, 1916[1] – 31 May, 1917
Succeeded by
David Wardlaw-Ramsay
Preceded by
Stuart J. L. Bennett
Captain of H.M.S. Woodlark
21 May, 1919[2] – 21 Jul, 1921
Succeeded by
Ivan W. Whitehorn

Footnotes

  1. The Navy List. (October, 1916). p. 393m.
  2. The Navy List. (December, 1920). p. 901.