Tommy Clarke

Tommy Clarke was educated at Cheltenham College, before going on to Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He represented Great Britain in the skeleton at the 1948 Winter Olympics, but it was his love for high speed that Clarke, as a racing driver, was better known He started racing competitively in 1931, exclusively in Lea-Francis cars, but, in 1935, he won the 2.5 litre class at the Brooklands 500-mile race driving a Bugatti. Clarke took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race three times (1935, 1950-51), finishing eighth on two occasions. He also took part in the 1936 French and Donnington Grands Prix, and contested that year’s Mille Miglia.

Clarke served as a lieutenant-commander with the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during World War II. He was mentioned in dispatches in 1941 and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in 1943. In 1944-45 he was commander of the destroyer HMS Bleasdale, which was part of the escort force for the D-Day landings. After the war, Clarke was a member of the London Stock Exchange. He died suddenly in Antigua (now Antigua and Barbuda) at the age of 57 in 1969.