Captain William Spencley Clark
Captain William Spencley Clark was the youngest son of William and Margaret Kirkwood Clark, of Whiteley Wood Hall, Sheffield. He was educated at Dollar Academy and High School of Glasgow and then an engineering pupil at Vickers Ltd, where his father was a director.
During his time at Vickers, William met Theodora (Dora) Clegg, they used to arrange to meet regularly at a nearby pillar-box when she went out to 'post a letter' and from there he would take her out for rides on his motorbike. Dora's stepmother disapproved of William until she discovered that his father was a Director of Vickers Engineering Works, and that William might one day take over the management from his father, she then found him 'most acceptable' and encouraged their being together. William and Dora became engaged not long before war was declared.
William, who had been training to become an army officer, on the outbreak of war, joined the Sheffield University OTC that took part in forming the 12th Bn York and Lancaster Regiment ('Sheffield City Battalion'). He was commissioned into the battalion in September 1914 and was promoted Captain in November 1915.
The battalion then went to Egypt and disembarked there in January 1916 but returned to France in early March 1916.
On 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, after seeing the first wave go over, William got up onto the parapet and called for the second wave. Half-way across No Man's Land, he noticed the officers in the front had fallen so he rushed up to take their places. At first, he escaped the hail of machine gun bullets which was striking down most of the advancing British soldiers, but as he reached the parapet of the German trench he was hit and fell to his death.
Dora later stated that she suddenly 'knew' that William had been killed.
On the 16th June 1931 it was necessary to exhume the bodies of two unknown York and Lancaster officers at Puisieux au Mont in an isolated grave. The effects found were a ring engraved W.S.C, dentures, pieces of officer's tunics, York and Lancaster buttons, two pairs of Bedford cord breeches, two officer ties, two pairs of General Service boots (size 9), inside was written 'DORA', October 1914. The bodies were approximately 5'9" and 5'10" and the upper parts of the bodies were so intermingled as to render separate exhumation impossible.
The remains were reburied in one coffin with two grave spaces being allowed at Serre Road Cemetery No 2.
Upon Williams death, Dora joined the Women's Legion and held the position of Area Controller at Chatham Barracks, for which services she was awarded an M.B.E. Later she met an ex-serviceman from William's section, who had been blinded in the war at 18 in his first attack. They married and adopted a son.
Brooch of William that Dora kept all of her life.
