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| Cadet School of Military Aviation, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, 1917 Clarke Jr. is the 7th from the right on the front row |
The materials of Powhatan H. Clarke,
Jr. were selected for digitization because of his very interesting and unique military
career. In addition to correspondence, Clarke Jr.'s materials include
photographs and a short diary. These materials provide a view into the War from
the perspective of a pilot. The
stories of Clarke Jr.'s various mishaps which he described in great detail in his letters are riveting. For example, the time he lost his money
while on leave or the time his chauffer borrowed a government car and crashed into
a farmer and his son. Needless to say, this collection shows that the War was about much more than the battles. It was
about people and their frailties that, in the case of Clarke Jr., often led to trouble.
Below are excerpts from Clarke Jr.’s letters detailing his
military service and several of his unique experiences while serving in France:
Flight School
....I am flying now. We start in 23 metre machines with an instructor
– A23 metre machine is one whose total wing area is 23 sq. metre. So you see it
is not very big.- Then when we are out losse-Pashe they call it if you fly the
23 singles [page 4] #13 That you fly the
23’s by yourself. Then you go to the 18 metres and finally the 15 metres which
are the fighting machines although they look like toys. I have finished the 23
double and 23 single fields but I havn’t got up in the 18 yet. On my first solo
landing I landed in some soft mud and nosed over flat on my back. It sure was a
funny sensation. Didn’t even jar me but I couldn’t get that darn belt undone
for what seemed to me half an hour although it couldnt have been more than two
or three minutes. I have discovered that that I can swear more fluently upside
down than in any other position....
Labor Company Commander
No 24 June 28 My Dearest Mother. It has been ten days since my last letter but I have been so “topsy-turvy” that I could not write. To make up for the lapse of time I am going to spring some startleing news. There has been something wrong with my flying for some time but I thought nobody would notice it & that I would get over it. About a week ago I was suddenly called up and informed I could not fly & that the Air Service was too crowded for a ground job so bing! Out I went. I was sent to Paris and I thought I was doomed to fly a desk but far from [page 2] it. In Paris I was informed I was with the labor bureau and bing (again) out I went to take charge of 200 Morocoans working for the A.E.F. Can you beat that! Me C.O. of a Labor Company. How the mighty have fallen. Naturally I was bitterly disappointed but – what has to was is going to is. I am in a very pretty part of the country. Very hilly & green but there aint nothing nowhere near. I am billeted in a French house. A very large nice room which strangely is not mouldy. The town is great. The other two houses are almost directly opposite. Guess I’ll keep early hours. There are 6 American non-coms & two interpreters with my [laborers] & that constitutes the garrison of the “town” ....
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated April 9, 1918 |
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated June 28, 1918 |
No 24 June 28 My Dearest Mother. It has been ten days since my last letter but I have been so “topsy-turvy” that I could not write. To make up for the lapse of time I am going to spring some startleing news. There has been something wrong with my flying for some time but I thought nobody would notice it & that I would get over it. About a week ago I was suddenly called up and informed I could not fly & that the Air Service was too crowded for a ground job so bing! Out I went. I was sent to Paris and I thought I was doomed to fly a desk but far from [page 2] it. In Paris I was informed I was with the labor bureau and bing (again) out I went to take charge of 200 Morocoans working for the A.E.F. Can you beat that! Me C.O. of a Labor Company. How the mighty have fallen. Naturally I was bitterly disappointed but – what has to was is going to is. I am in a very pretty part of the country. Very hilly & green but there aint nothing nowhere near. I am billeted in a French house. A very large nice room which strangely is not mouldy. The town is great. The other two houses are almost directly opposite. Guess I’ll keep early hours. There are 6 American non-coms & two interpreters with my [laborers] & that constitutes the garrison of the “town” ....
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated July 19, 1918 |
No 27 July 19 My dearest Mother. Whew – never in all my life
have I had such a busy time. As you know I went on detached service to the
Labor Bureau. Well they shot me out to a little two by four village to get
experience with a labor company that was running smoothly. They left me there
exactly five days and then shot me down here. I got orders on the sixth of July
to come here and make preparation to receive a company of 250 men and telegraph
when I was ready. I left on the seventh, arrived here on the eighth and was
greeted with a telegram saying that fifty of my men would arrive on the ninth.
Holy Mike & little catfish did I hustle. You should have seen the fun. I
didn’t have a damn thing but the telegram and you should have seen the smoke. I
don’t know how much red tape I busted through but I came out all right on that
deal. Since then life has just been one damn thing after the other. Another
bunch of 50 men came in on half an hours notice. The Labor Companies are
something very new and nobody outside the Labor Bureau knows what kind of an
animal it is. I have to fight the QM for food. The supply officer, the
transportation officer, the construction officer and every body else has to be
convinced that my Co. belongs to the army before they will do anything. The men
are supposed to be paid on the 1st and 15th. Well I am
still waiting for the money to pay the men for the fifteenth. Money has since
arrived the man were paid & 45 immediately quit. Hopping around like a
chicken with its head of trying to find some money (naturally I wont use any of
mine) and at the same time quelling about fifty riots a day because the men
want their pay. Oh it’s a great life. Forgot to say that the company is
composed of French civilian laborers who are the scum of the earth. The only
trustworthy ones are the soldiers who have been discharged on account of wounds
& they cant do much work.
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated January 16, 1919 |
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated January 16, 1919 |
[page 2] Well it took me about two second to get all the
shade down & the door locked after that I pulled out the seat & slept
comfortably. We arrived at 3:15 AM & after driving to five hotels I decided
it was useless & gave up getting a room. There was a train out at 5:15 AM
which got to Nice at 3: PM three hours before the express which left at 11. o’clock
so I decided to get that. To pass the time I had a bath & shave at one of
the hotels I guess they said and then fool Americans shaving at 4:00 in the
morning. I got to the train & it was over flowing. Some kind hearted Yank
told me there was an officers car up ahead so I double timed for it & got
the next to last seat. It was one of those old fashioned coaches with out a
corridor the compartment running completely across the car. It was supposed to
hold 8. ...
....Well the party kept up to Nice & everybody seemed so congenial & had enjoyed the miserable trip so that we planned a reunion dinner. But it was the frostiest frost I have ever been bitten by. The atmosphere wasn’t right & the bunch that had all been lunatics, laughing at nothing on the train we just as formal as could be imagined. I got away as soon as possible & washed my hands of them forever. Well I got my room had a bath & carelessly put my hand in my inside pocket. I froze stiff. There wasn’t a thing there I couldn’t find hide or hair of those three thousand francs. Whee bodys. That left me about 400 francs for 7 days at Nice – ye gads – I sure was in a panic. I cabled first thing. Then I tried to make The Credit Lyonaise do something & they refused none to politely. Wouldn’t even telegraph to Paris to find out if I had ever had an account there. I took all my meals at the hotel for a couple of days & signed the check except when I was invited out. Then your Christmas check arrived & I though I could get by but the bright child (meaning me) in figuring expenses hurriedly & in a panic forgot completely that hotels usually charge for the accommodations. For two days I was under this delightful misapprehension.
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated January 16, 1919 |
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated January 16, 1919 |
He wound up by saying that I had done the proper thing in coming to him & that he would guarantee the bill himself. If you ever bump into G.B. Smith, Colonel Coast Artillery he’s it. You might remember him in your prayers or something like that. We went down to the hotel & saw Mr. Negresco who was all smiles when he found out my friend was C.O. Certainly he didn’t doubt that I would pay etc. etc. But it was a mere matter of forum, An agreement among the hotel keepers with anybody under a major because their salary was so small. He assured us everything was perfectly all right & I could stay several days longer if I wished. Well I came back later & found my door locked with a special key. I had to get the manageress – who had the only special key – before I got in. Quite naturally we had another scrap when she wouldn’t let me in until she had seen Mr. Negresco. We saw Mr. Negresco & I boiled over & told him a few things about hotel management changing his face after he said everything was all right etc. I went into dinner & the head waiter told me I would have to pay cash. Well did I see red. I chased up Mr N. & found him with the manageress. What I told him was a crime. I was really eloquent. Mr N. didn’t know I knew any French so he called me a “Salt American” Whee – I told him he was the kind of Frenchman I wanted to kill every time I thought of the American blood that had been shed to save his G-damn stinking money grubbing hide – those were my very words & I’m sure I’ll be forgiven for them. What he was thinking I don’t know but he informed me that he was a Romanian whereupon I ended up with a beautiful apology to the French people for ever having mistaken an animal like him for a Frenchman. The thing got into the papers and oh lord how they did rub it into Mr N. It seems he was a Romanian who took out French naturalization just two days before the war and all the French hate him. There happened to be a French reporter in hearing who understood [ms illegible: 1 wd] he made a wonderful story out of it. I would love to have seen Mr N. when he read it. I’m bringing the clippings home. Wont trust the mail. Well I got out the next morning as soon as possible, as luck would [page 4] have it the manageress escorted me to the door. I suppose she wanted to see I didn’t steal anything. Just at the door I put out my hand as if to shake hands and when she put up her hand I dropped half a franc into it for a tip. I left her with her hand stuck out. She was staring at that 50 centimes with her mouth open but the words wouldn’t come in time. I sure thought she was on fire from the color of her face.....
A Deadly
Accident
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| Cablegram from Clarke Jr. Elizabeth Clarke dated July 23, 1919 |
110 NYTI STNAZAIRE ELIZABETH CLARKE CARE HENRY GOVVNER UNION TRUST BLDG
WASHINGTON SEE LETTERS BOY DIED CABLE TEN THOUSAND FRANCS EVERY THING-ELSE FINE
CLARKE JULY 23 1919 RECD 620A Recd
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| Western Union Telegram from Mrs. Clarke to Clarke Jr. dated July 28, 1919 |
To 1st L. PHC ARC – Fm Majr – St Nazaire France Cabled two thousand today twenty
third– also thousand July first – June eleventh last letter received– Can you cable
information – Are you well cable immediately Clarke Arrived July 28/[1919] “My
car unauthorized trip – had accident – was not in car – perfectly well” –
Clarke – Mr [ms illegible: 1 wd] telephoned this morning-
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| Letter from Clarke Jr. to Mother dated August 15, 1919 |
No 62 St. Nazaire 5 August 1919. My dearest Mother. Well
I’ve at last got my head above water. for a while I was scared stiff, if it
hadn’t been for some real friends I would have been up the creek. To
recapitulate. I was on one of my week end trips at Guerande on the way home the
chauffer got too much to drink and went on a spree. He piled some French girls
into the car and then piled the car into a French horse & wagon. There was
absolutely no excuse, he hit the horse absolutely head on at about 30 miles per
hour. The horse was killed outright, the boy had some bones broken but did not
seem badly hurt and the father was shaken up. I settled for the property damage
& care of the boy and about two weeks later the boy died. Holy Mike I was
in a fix. If the matter had been taken up as the regular way it would have been
me for a D.D. as the car was in my charge I was proceeding without orders. Well
the thing is settled now thank heavens although it cost more money than I like
to think about....
Clarke Jr.'s Sudden Death
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| Powhatan H. Clarke. Jr.'s Death Certificate dated August 31, 1920 |
On August 30, 1920, Clarke Jr. died from tuberculosis. He became ill while on holiday with his family and died at a convalescent home in Saranac Lake, New York.
In addition to digitizing the Powhatan H. Clarke Collection located at the Missouri History Museum, project staff has also digitized portions of the Clarke Family
Manuscript Collection. This collection is located at the St. Louis University Archives and contains correspondence between
Clarke Jr.’s mother, Elizabeth Clemens Clarke, and various individuals in
reference to his untimely death.
