About the contributor

Introducing Ted Clark

I was born in Islington in 1908 to the sound of Bow Bells — which makes me a cockney. At fifteen I joined the royal Navy, trained on the HMS Ganges at Shotley, and went to sea the following year. During my fifteen years in the Royal Navy I spent seven years in China, plying the West River in a small gunboat, the HMS Moth, a couple of years in South Africa, as well as time spent surveying the North Sea. I left the Royal Navy in 1938 and joined the civilian arm of the RAF erecting radar masts as part of the war effort. This last activity is the topic of my piece on the WWII website.