Thornton Clarke
Personal information
Full name	Thornton Gainsborough Clarke
Nickname(s)	Tom
Date of birth	(1891-11-27)27 November 1891
Place of birth	Essendon, Victoria
Date of death	19 July 1916(1916-07-19) (aged 24)
Place of death	Fromelles,France
Original team(s)	Mt Lyell[1]
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	74 kg (163 lb)
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1911	Fitzroy (VFL)	4 (0)
1910–1915	Essendon Association (VFA)	88 (218)
Total		92 (218)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1915.
Career highlights
VFA Leading goalkicker 1914
Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com

Thornton Gainsborough "Tom" Clarke (27 November 1891 – 19 July 1916) was anAustralian rules footballer who played withFitzroy in theVictorian Football League (VFL), and theEssendon Association Football Club in theVictorian Football Association (VFA).

The son of Arthur Clarke (-1934),^[2][3] and Rebecca Ann Clarke (-1940), née Cooke,^[4][5][6] Thornton Gainsborough Clarke was born inEssendon, Victoria on 27 November 1891.

He married Annie Muriel Walker (1889–1976) on 16 June 1915.^[7][8]

Their son, Thornton Vernon Clarke – later, Flight Lieutenant Thornton Vernon Clarke, DFC (408954) – was born on 4 March 1916, after Clarke had left Australia with the First AIF.^[9]

Granted a permit from Mount Lyell to Fitzroy on 17 May 1911,^[10] 19-year-old Clarke played four First XVIII games for Fitzroy in the1911 VFL season.

He played in 88 games and scored 218 goals over six seasons (1910 to 1915) forEssendon Association Football Club in theVictorian Football Association (VFA).

In 1913 and 1914 he was the VFA's leading goalkicker, with 58 and 46 goals respectively.

Qualified as an electrical engineer, and employed at G. Weymouth Pty. Ltd., Electrical Engineers, in Richmond,^[11] he enlisted in the First AIF in July 1915, and served with the60th Infantry Battalion.

External videos
Thornton Gainsborough Clarke: A video profile of Thornton Clarke, killed at the Battle of Fromelles in 1916:St Clare's College, Waverley: onYoutube (5 September 2018).[12][13]

Clarke was killed in action on 19 July 1916, soon after arriving on theWestern Front, during theBattle of Fromelles.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Initially listed as "missing",^[18][19] he was officially declared "killed in action", by a Court of Enquiry held in France on 4 August 1917.^[20]

Buried in a mass grave at the time of his death, his remains were never recovered, and he is commemorated at theV.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial in Fromelles, France.

• List of Victorian Football League players who died on active service

• Corporal Thornton Gainsborough Clarke (2830),Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
• Thornton Clarke's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Tom Clarke, atAustralianFootball.com
• Thornton "Tom" Clarke, atThe VFA Project

• 1891 births
• 1916 deaths
• Australian rules footballers from Tasmania
• Australian Rules footballers: place kick exponents
• Fitzroy Football Club players
• Essendon Association Football Club players
• Australian military personnel killed in World War I
• Missing in action of World War I
• Australian rules footballers from Melbourne
• People from Essendon, Victoria
• Military personnel from Melbourne
• 20th-century Australian sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from May 2024
• Use Australian English from August 2012
• All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
• Pages using Wikidata property P3546
• Pages using Wikidata property P3547