Donald Owen Clarke was born in Chester-le-Street on 5th March, 1923, and was an Apprentice Officer in the Merchant Navy, aboard an oil tanker, the San Emiliano, which was torpedoed in the Atlantic by a German U-boat, U155, three days after leaving Trinidad bound for Cape Town, South Africa, on 8th August, 1942. When attacked, the ship was carrying over 12,000 tons of high octane aviation fuel and after being struck by the torpedo, immediately exploded in flames. Despite being so badly burned that he died the following day, Donald Clarke managed to get aboard the only lifeboat to be launched, and helped to save eleven other sailors, some also severely burned, by helping to row the lifeboat away from the doomed ship and the inferno of oil burning on the surface of the sea. He helped row the boat for two hours until clear of danger, and it was only then that it was found his hands had been so badly burned that they had to be cut away from the oar handles. It was said by survivors that he had been rowing with the bones of his hands. We cannot even begin to imagine the agony he must have endured, but despite this, while lying in the bottom of the lifeboat hoping for rescue, he sang songs to his crewmates to try to keep up their spirits.

Donald died the following morning from his injuries. He was only 19 years of age.

On 20th July, 1943, Donald Owen Clarke was posthumously awarded the highest award for gallantry available to civilians, the George Cross. The last part of the citation, published in the London Gazette, reads:

"By his supreme effort, undertaken without thought of self and in spite of terrible agony, Apprentice Clarke ensured the safety of his comrades in the boat. His great heroism and selfless devotion were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Merchant Navy."

Donald is remembered in the memorial chapel at Chester-le-Street Parish Church, where the cross takes the form of a replica of his George Cross, and in the Centre at the Riverside which bears his name, and which is the home of Chester-le-Street Amateur Rowing Club and Chester-le-Street Sea Cadets Corps.

"Lest We Forget"

For a fuller account of Donald Owen Clarke's story, please go here.