Clergyman. He issued the first parish magazine and established several other religious publications. Responsible for founding churches, schools and hospitals in Battersea.
Born in India to an official of the East India Company. His father died in 1835 and the family returned to Edinburgh. As a young man he was a successful rower, competing at Henley Royal Regatta. After university he took holy orders and served as a curate in a number of non-London parishes, at one of which he started the world's first commercial parish magazine.
In 1872 he became Vicar of St Mary's Church, Battersea and remained there until 1909. There, he founded the "Provident Dispensary" (later Bolingbroke Hospital, founded 1880) and established "The Vicarage School for Girls" at the vicarage house near the river (this 1866 map shows a vicarage just south-east of Battersea Square). The school later moved to Clapham Common. Instrumental in establishing Battersea Grammar School.
On 27 July 1895, Clarke was made Honorary Chaplain to Queen Victoria, and after her death in 1901 continued in the same role to King Edward VII and then to King George V.
Died at St Luke's Vicarage, 192 Ramsden Road (beside St Luke's church), now (2025) Broomwood School.
This image comes from The History of Wandsworth Common where it is dated 1912.
Sources: Wikipedia, History of Wandsworth Common, UCL Bartlett.
Our colleague, Andrew Behan, adds his dates of birth and death. He states that when John Erskine Clarke was baptised on 14 January 1828 in Cossipore, Bengal, India, the baptismal register shows his date of birth as 28 October 1827 and that he was born in Cossipore, Bengal, a son of William Fairlie Clarke (1788-1835) and Arabella Anne Clarke née Cheap (1799-1853).
His death was registered as aged 92 years in the 1st quarter of 1920 in the Wandsworth Registration District, London. His body was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, The Moorings, Battersea Church Road, London, SW11 3NA. Probate records confirm his address had been St Luke's Vicarage, Ramsden Road, Balham and that probate was granted on 14 April 1920 to the Reverend Charles Erskine Clarke, a clerk. His effects totalled £9,919-0s-3d.
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