FRONTLINE HERO

Clark earned place in history

LIFE WELL LIVED: Clark with his trophies, as a Huddersfield player ( inset) and on his military motorcycle ( right)

CALLING on his rugby league and wrestling skills, Douglas Clark became a World War One hero by carrying fallen soldiers while delivering ammunition to the frontline.

Cumbrian- born Clark played loose forward in Huddersfield’s ‘ Team of All Talents’ at the start of the 20th century.

As a Great Britain star he featured in the historic 1914 ‘ Rorke’s Drift’ test against Australia in Sydney, before later becoming All- in Wrestling Champion of the World. But Clark’s most heroic deeds occurred on the harrowing battlefields of Belgium, earning him the Military

Medal for bravery. His role was incredibly dangerous – driving ammunition crates to the frontline, targeted by German fire.

Clark’s acts of bravery have been chronicled in a new book charting his remarkable life, “The Man of All Talents”.

In July 1916 in West Flanders, a shell exploded close to Clark’s truck.

Biographer Steve Bell recounted: “Aided by the team ethic instilled in him from his sporting life, Duggy instinctively acted to save his comrades.

“Duggy ran back and forth through the smoke and horror, sometimes managing one fallen soldier over each shoulder.”

Despite the chilling sound of gas bombs around them, Clark removed his mask in order to see clearly to drive the lorry to safety at Ypres hospital, l where h he would require treatment himself for the next 10 days.

For the next four months Clark drove along the hazardous Menin Road to the front line dozens of times a day, before moving on to Passchendaele.

After one heavy bombing, he again helped wounded men into his truck, simultaneously lifting gunpowder out while trying to reassure the injured.

When a shell hit close by, smouldering fragments threatened to blow the lorry up. Instead of fleeing, he sprinted to find a fire extinguisher, returning in time to put out the flames before the vehicle exploded.

“The awfullest day of my life so far,” he wrote in his journal. “My lucky star.”

Clark’s luck ran out when he was pierced by shrapnel after being blown out of a truck he was trying to drive to safety.

Bell wrote: “Such was the respect he had within his regiment, the men all ran into the gas to drag him from the mud.”

Clark later returned to Huddersfield for treatment and on discharge was told never to wrestle or take part in strenuous physical activity again.

But he returned to playing for Huddersfield and Great Britain before his wrestling career hit new heights later in life.

Tragically, he died suddenly aged 59, from heart disease.

But his legacy had long been assured, his induction into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2005 confirming his place in the sport’s history.