Ken Clark is the Treasurer of the H.M.S. Hood Association. Like all Clarks, he is known to everyone as "Nobby". Our Nobby is certainly one of the more colourful characters one could ever meet - with many a humorous anecdote to share as well as his love of showing-off the many electronic gadgets he has collected over the years.
He grew-up in Winchester, where he still lives today. A hard worker, he had several different jobs between the time he left school at the age of 14, and the time he joined the Royal Navy in March 1937. He originally wanted join as a Physical Training Instructor but was told that at 20 years of age, he was already too old! So he became a Stoker instead.
His first draft was H.M.S. Hood. Nobby joined the ship at Malta on 11th September, 1937. Hood was where Nobby would learn his trade - the various duties and tests that a stoker on a large ship had to perform on a day-to-day basis. These included scrubbing the oil tanks as part of the "double bottom crew" and tending to various pieces of equipment in the engineering and turret spaces.
He served in Hood until 2nd May 1940. He has many interesting stories of the ship and crew which we plan on posting online in a much-expanded biography in the coming months.
Following Hood, he was assigned to H.M.S Victory. He then took place in the famous action at Dunkirk. In 1942, he was assigned to the minesweeper H.M.S. Boston. Nobby's service in Boston was mainly in the Mediterranean where they were responsible for keeping clear the approaches to harbours and other important shipping routes. During this time Nobby lost a number of mates as other ships in the minesweeping flotilla were lost. Later in 1943 Boston supported the Sicily landings.
After leaving the Navy, Nobby worked in several jobs including some time as a switchboard operator for Post Office Telephones - the forerunner of today's BT. Nobby was one of the founding members of the H.M.S. Hood Association and has served as its Treasurer since the early days. Because of his talent in controlling the Association's budget, Association President Ted Briggs has lovingly bestowed a second nickname - "Scrooge"!
There can be little doubt though that Nobby is the "rock" of the Association and has been for many years. Not only have he and his late wife Gladys always hosted Association Committee meetings, but Nobby has always taken upon himself the secondary role of unofficial Association archivist. He is the quintessential collector and has, thankfully, saved even the most minute items/details related to Hood and the Association.
Without doubt, we of the website staff and, indeed several authors of recent books about Hood owe him a great deal for his unflagging support and all the information he has presented us over the years.
Additional Photographs
