Sudden Death of Mr.

W. G. Clarke

THE death of Mr. W. G. Clarke, traffic manager of the Beam Wireless Ser vice, Sydney, and a man well known in New Guinea, occurred with

tragic suddenness on March 21. He was only 58 years old, and apparently strong and well. He collapsed suddenly in his garden, and died soon afterwards.

“Nobby” Clarke was trained in the British telegraph service, and joined the wireless service of the Australian Post Office in 1912. He was at Townsville and Applecross (Perth) for nine years. In 1921 he went to Rabaul and took charge of the wireless services in the Mandated Territory, and when the organisation was taken over by Amalgamated Wireless in 1922, Mr. Clarke remained there for three years as Inspector.

It was during those three years that Mr. Clarke took a keen interest in the newly-opening goldfield in the Morobe district. He got in “on the ground floor” of Day Dawn which, for a time, was a phenomenal money-maker, and he was still a director of that company when it fell upon evil days in the mid-thirties.

Nonetheless, he did well out of his shrewd appraisal of Morobe’s possibilities.

Back in Australia in the late twenties, he held a number of important posts under AWA, and then became Traffic Manager, and as the Beam service rapidly grew and developed, his job became more important and onerous. He

was an upright and a most courteous and kindly man. Wherever he came into contact with the public he made friends, who will learn of his passing with deep regret.

The late Mr. W. G. Clarke.