A member of the Wandsworth Swimming Club, Harold Clarke won the club 100 yards freestyle title in the three years from 1906-08. During that time, he was also gaining a reputation as a good diver and, at the age of 19, won the Amateur Diving Association (ADA) graceful diving competition at Richmond Pools in 1907, and that same year he also won the ADA Open Water Diving Championship. In 1908, Clarke finished second to the holder, Harold Smyrk, in the National Diving Championship, a title that Clarke would win three years in succession later in his career, in 1920, 1921 and 1922. Unfortunately he was in France at the time of the 1923 Championships and could not return to defend his title. Clarke was by then at his peak, and after failing to medal at the 1908 and 1920 Olympics, he collected the plain high-board bronze medal at the Paris Games in 1924, and was Britain’s only male swimming or diving medallist at the Games. Clarke continued diving into his mid-forties. By profession, Clarke was a continental representative for the Huntley and Palmers biscuit makers, and he emigrated to New Zealand in 1952.
Great Britain