Edwin Clark from Clyst St Mary, a member of Exeter City’s reserve team during the years leading up to the Great War, died when serving in the Royal Navy in 1917 as the result of an accident on board his ship at Grimsby. Although he did not play for the first team, he is recorded in this section of the archive in common with all thirteen Exeter City players who lost their lives in events related to the conflict of 1914-18.    

In his early twenties, and working as a carpenter, he played as an amateur with Exeter City’s reserves in the Plymouth and District League in the years immediately before the outbreak of war in 1914. He is pictured as a member of the team in 1912/13 and would have often played alongside a generation of City’s amateurs who were to perish in the Great War: Fred Bailey, Fred Hunt, Billy Stoneman, John Webb and George White. 

Joining the Royal Navy, Edwin Clark died on 6 December 1917 in Grimsby after falling into the sea when on board HMS Vivid. He is buried in the churchyard at Clyst St Mary.

For more information about Edwin Clark’s war service and death see his entry in the Killed in Action section of the Archive