4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Benjamin George Clarke was born in Cheltenham in the second quarter of 1870. He was the husband of Rachel Clarke and they lived at 1 Somerset Cottage, Swindon Road, Cheltenham. He died on 25 August 1916, according to the Cheltenham Cemetery register, of phthisis pulmonary tuberculosis), aged 46.
It is probable that Private Clarke had been discharged from the Army just prior to death, having seen no service overseas, since he is not included in the War Office publication Soldiers Died in the Great War: neither can his name be found in the medal rolls held at the National Archives at Kew. His army number indicates that he enlisted in March/April 1915.
The fact that Private Benjamin Clarke is listed on the memorial in Cheltenham Parish church indicates that he was an old boy of the Parish school. He is buried in Cheltenham Borough Cemetery with a standard CWGC headstone and commemorated in the Cheltenham War Memorial, as well as the memorial at St Mary’s Church.
(Taken from “Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham in the Great War” by Graham Sacker and Joe Devereux)