Air Commodore Charles Clarke
Bomb aimer who was imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the camp made famous in The Great Escape
AIR COMMODORE CHARLES CLARKE, who has died aged 95, was a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, and as recently as March this year he made a pilgrimage back to the scene of the “Great Escape” to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the event and to remember the 50 airmen murdered by the Gestapo.
Clarke, aged just 20, was the bomb aimer of a Lancaster of 619 Squadron shot down by a German night fighter over the Black Forest on the night of February 25 1944. He was returning from an attack on Schweinfurt, his 17th bombing mission. Three of his crew, including his Canadian pilot, did not survive.
Clarke arrived at Stalag Luft III a month before the mass break-out when 76 men escaped down a tunnel. He always remembered the chilling moment when the prisoners stood in the compound and the names of the 50 men who had been shot were read out.
On the night of January 25 1945 he and his fellow prisoners were forcemarched out of the camp on what famously became known as the “Long March”. It coincided with the worst winter for decades, with temperatures well below zero. Many of the malnourished men died. Finally, at the end of April, the German guards disappeared and advance parties of the British 11th Division freed the Pows.
In later years, Clarke said: “Internment is not something that I would willingly do again, but not a day goes by in which I do not draw strength from the experience.”
Charles Henry Clarke was born in Tottenham on November 25 1923 and educated at Down Lane Central
School. He joined the RAF in March 1942, trained as a bomb aimer and was commissioned.
In August 1943 he joined 619 Squadron at a time when the major bombing campaign against Berlin was commencing and losses in Bomber Command reached their highest. He also attacked targets in the Ruhr.
After his return from imprisonment, Clarke joined the RAF’S equipment branch. He filled various appointments overseas and was twice involved in the withdrawal of British forces from dependent territories. The first was in 1947, from Palestine, while in 1967 he held a senior post at the time of the departure of forces from Aden. He had also served in Cyprus, and he and his family held happy memories of their two and a half years in Malta.
In 1954 Clarke moved to the Air Ministry as a member of the planning team for the British atomic testing programme, and during a later appointment he was involved in preparing the equipment support requirements for the advanced TSR 2 strike aircraft, which was later cancelled.
In November 1967 he was appointed to command RAF Stafford, the largest RAF supply depot. During his time in command he famously opened the new swimming pool by diving in fully clothed in his dress uniform. After further appointments at the HQ of Maintenance Command and in the MOD, he retired from the service in November 1978.
He became a director at Debenhams with particular responsibility for logistics and was later appointed director general of the National Association of Warehouse Keepers. He retired in 1995.
Clarke devoted most of his retirement to RAF charities. He worked tirelessly as president of the Bomber Command Association and became one of the leading voices in the campaign for a permanent memorial to the men who had been killed during their service in Bomber Command. In June 2012 he was present in Green Park when the Queen unveiled the monument.
He was also the president and chairman of the RAF ex-prisoner of War Association. In conjunction with the RAF Benevolent Society and the Royal Air Force Association he investigated and supported many welfare cases, sometimes with donations from his own pocket. For services to RAF charities he was appointed OBE in 2007.
He was president of the Middlesex Wing of the Air Training Corps and was an inspiration to cadets and other youngsters. He worked closely with the wider cadet movement, RAF trainees and service personnel, and accompanied parties of them to Poland to retrace his steps during the Long March each anniversary.
He helped build a replica barrack block – Hut 104, which housed the entrance to the escape tunnel – and a replica guard tower. These were his ideas to enhance the museum site at Stalag Luft III but also to help the younger generation to better understand the events of the Second World War.
Clarke was involved in the RAF 100 celebrations in April 2018 and started the baton relay on April 1 from the Royal Courts of Justice in London, which visited 100 sites associated with the RAF over 100 days. During the celebrations he was presented to the Queen.
In October 2018 he made an emotional return to the site at Bad Teinach-zavelstein in the Black Forest where his Lancaster had crashed and where local people had constructed a memorial. A large crowd had gathered for a dedication ceremony at which Clarke spoke and laid flowers in memory of his three colleagues who had perished.
During his time in Malta he took up sailing and built a small sailing dinghy for his daughter. He enjoyed skiing and remained active well in to his seventies.
Charles Clarke married Eileen Fosh in November 1946. She died in 2012, and their daughter survives him.
Charles Clarke, born November 25 1923, died May 7 2019