Fullbore Friday

Boil down your duty to its essence.

Not the rah, rah, kind of duty. Not the duty some preen to themselves about. No, duty.

That duty that stands against every instinct you have for self-preservation. That instinct to flight. That duty that stands, calm and determined.

Do you have faith in your duty? What about those next to you? What about those who count on your sense of duty?

After holding out for eight days and taking hundreds of casualties, the remaining British troops evacuated across the Rhine river before the Germans overran their positions.

Selfless Sgt Clarke passed up the chance to escape with them and instead remained at the aid station to carry on giving treatment and comfort to wounded and dying comrades.

In doing so he knew full well he would be taken prisoner.

Sgt Clarke, a glider pilot, spent the rest of the war in a PoW camp in Sagen, Poland, until February 1945 when the Russians advanced from the east.

That is a measure any man would hope to meet. Staff Sergeant Peter Clarke, OBE, British Army was that measure. He recently passed at age 96, a life well lived.

Sgt Clarke died on Tuesday at his home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, following a short illness.

His wife Jean died in 2016 and he leaves two daughters.

Tributes flooded in yesterday (thu) for Sgt Clarke.

...

Dr David Pasley, secretary of the society, added: "There were so many acts of heroism at Arnhem but Peter's was the one that stuck out for me.

"He didn't think it was special, he was just doing what was right.

Duty is, in the end, what is right. Fullbore.