Malcolm Kellas Clark

Malcolm Kellas Clark

Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery 104 Brigade

Died 3rd October 1918 aged 21

Driver M.K. Clark  –  R.F.A

Malcolm Kellas Clark, born Keith on 25 May 1897, was a son of Alexander Clark, farmer Upper Mulben, Boharm (near Keith), and Isabella Malcolm, domestic servant. His name is sufficiently unusual for there to be little doubt about the identification, but his connection with Kincardine O’Neil is unclear. His mother Isabella was the daughter of William Malcolm, a Shepherd at Mains of Rhynie and his wife Isabella Edward. In 1881, the Malcolm family were at Soundmoor, Boharm in the county of Elgin. The 1891 Census found them at 9B Mill Wynd, Keith. In 1901 young Malcolm, then aged 4, was living in his grandmother Malcolm’s household at 25 Wellington Terrace, Keith with his mother, two other boys who may have been siblings – James Grant aged 13 and George Clark aged 5 months, and Isabella’s older brother John. On 26 September 1902, Malcolm and George were both baptised in the Roman Catholic Church. 

In 1905, Isabella married Alexander Morrison, but it appears that, in 1909, tragedy struck the family when Alexander, a marine stoker on the Buckie steam drifter “Jeannie Murray”, died by drowning in Stornoway Harbour in the early hours of a Sunday morning, along with five others, who were being conveyed in a rowing boat to their own vessels at anchor in the harbour.  In 1910 Isabella married a man called John Abernethy Murdoch. On 1 November 1914, grandmother Isabella died at Keith of apoplexy, aged 81.

Clark became a Gunner (No. 549 and 630227) in the Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery 104 Brigade. The Brigade were part of Kitchener’s New Army, established in 1914. This was a heavy artillery brigade armed with 18-pounder field guns, serving as part of the 23rd Division until January 1917, and thereafter as 104 Army Field Artillery Brigade. 104 Brigade were deployed in the Battle of Loos from late 1915 until the end of January 1916 and remained on the Western Front, taking part in the action at Vimy Ridge in May 1916, and in various phases of the Battle of the Somme.  

Gunner Clark’s record shows that he was a volunteer, as he was sent to France in November 1915, and presumably shared the fortunes of his brigade on the Western Front throughout this time. In the absence of his personal service record it has so far proved impossible to tell exactly what became of him, other than that he died of wounds inflicted in the course of service, aged 21, in the very last weeks of the war, on 3 October 1918. He is buried/commemorated at Tincourt New British Cemetery. 

Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths
Scottish Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms
Census 1881, 1891 and 1901 [Not traced despite extensive search in 1911 Census]
National Archives – Medal Index card WO 372/4/133000 and 104 Brigade RFA War Diary WO 95/2176/1
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