One hundred years ago, Europe was convulsed with the most violent and deadly war in history. America stayed out of World War I until April 1917, and significant numbers of American soldiers did not become engaged until 1918.
But as early as 1915, a Hamilton County family received news that they had lost a son near the Belgian town of Iper, known in war histories by its French name of Ypres.
Charles Loaring Clark was the son of the Rev. William James Loaring Clark, D.D., and Ada Marie Loaring Clark. At the time, the elder Clark was in his sixth year of service as rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Like his parents and his two younger brothers, Charlie, as he is still known in his family, was born in England, having come to the United States as a child while his father studied for the ministry.
He was 20 in 1914, when his native country declared war on Imperial Germany. At that time, Charlie was an undergraduate at the University of the South and a postulant for Holy Orders (a step to becoming an Episcopal priest).
At Sewanee, Charlie "was a good athlete, a close student, especially for sociology [and] a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He possessed a fine voice and was of a good appearance ...." He won gold medals for oratory and declamation, winning the latter for a speech on "The Rise of Democracy."
At his prime age and with six years of military education at the Sewanee Military Academy, Charlie was welcomed into the Canadian Army. He traveled from Chattanooga to Toronto in August 1914 to enlist in the 3rd Battalion of the Canadian infantry, joining recruits from the Toronto area.
The unit sailed from Quebec City on Sept. 24, 1914, on the steamship Tunisian and landed in England on Oct. 16. The Canadians were initially assigned to a quiet sector of the front, but in the first week of April 1915 they were moved to the Ypres (pronounced "ee-prez") area in West Flanders, Belgium.
For reasons that are unclear, Charlie remained in England during this interval and avoided the first German chlorine gas attacks on the Canadians that April.
Charlie wrote what proved to be his last letter to his mother June 6, anticipating being sent to France on June 8. In that letter, he related that "I've really heard so much about the front that I know just about what it will be like -- many wounded men from the 3rd are attached for light duty ... and they tell wonderful tales of the gallantry of some of our officers."
Charlie felt "quite capable of being responsible for the lives of the men in my platoon after so much drill and training." He proudly pointed out that a German newspaper thought the Canadians were the finest fighters among the Allies. He daydreamed of military glory and fantasized about being wounded just seriously enough to be sent home to the United States.
Late in the afternoon of June 16, two companies of the 3rd Battalion moved forward to support an attack by the British 7th Division. The assault was repulsed by "heavy machine gun and rifle fire."
Charlie led a platoon in the Canadian supporting attack, when, in the words of the official report of his death, "shortly after leaving our trenches he was wounded, but gallantly continued forward until again wounded seriously, when he fell. He was brought in and attended to, but died ...." The time of Charlie's death was early the next morning, June 17, in a hospital in Calais, France, two days after he otherwise would have graduated from Sewanee.
He was buried in Beuvry Communal Cemetery in Pas De Calais, France.
On June 19, the Canadian government telegraphed the Clark family in Chattanooga: "Deeply regret to inform you Lieutenant Charles Loaring Clark, 3rd Battalion, officially reported died of wounds June 17."
Another son of Rev. Loaring Clark, Harry, served in the U.S. Army and survived the war. While the Loaring Clark family eventually moved to West Tennessee, Charlie's grand-niece, Margaret Ferguson, is associate pastor at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church.
Charlie was only the first of slightly more than 200 young men from Hamilton County who died in World War I.
Sam D. Elliott is a local attorney and historian and the former chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission. For more information, visit Chattahistoricalassoc.org or call LaVonne Jolley at 423-886-2090.