Source: Duty Nobly Done Roll of Honour.
Family Search: When Private Robert Clarke was born on 1 November 1896, in Plumstead, London, England, United Kingdom, his father, Theodore Francis Clarke, was 43 and his mother, Sarah Ann Webster Gosling, was 34. He immigrated to Canada in 1913 and lived in West Ham, Essex, England, United Kingdom in 1901 and Stratford, Perth, Ontario, Canada in 1914. He registered for military service in 1914. In 1914, at the age of 18, his occupation is listed as labourer in Stratford, Perth, Ontario, Canada. He died on 16 July 1917, in Barlin, Pas-de-Calais, France, at the age of 20, and was buried in Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension, Barlin, Pas-de-Calais, France.
Wounded by shell bursting in billet on July 9, 1917 (Dewar billet?).
Member of St. Pauls Anglican Church, Stratford, Ontario.
This soldier enlisted with the 18th Battalion at Stratford, Ontario on October 24, 1915. He was a single labourer of of 18 years age.
After training in London, Ontario as the 18th Battalion formed, he embarked for England aboard the SS Grampian on April 18, 1915.
He suffered a GSW to his ankle on December 2, 1915, and was invalided to England for treatment. He returned to the 18th Battalion on June 6, 1917, and served with it until wounded by an German shell bursting in his billet on July 9, 1917.
He was transported to No. 6 Casualty Clearing Station, where the nature of his wounds did not allow for successful treatment and movement to a rear echelon hospital. He succumbed to his wounds on July 16, 1917.
History of the 18th Battalion CEF, "The Fighting Eighteenth" 