A brief commemoration service took place at 11:00 am on Friday 19th June 2015 at Clare War Memorial, Suffolk. A wreath was laid on behalf of Clare Town Council to mark the 100th anniversary of each of the Clare men who died in World War 1.
The first to fall from Clare was Herbert Pask on 19th June 1915.
Phil Gryce, Clare Town Councillor, gave a brief summary of Herbert's life, as described below. Two students from Stour Valley Community School laid the wreath on the Town Council's behalf. A minute's silence was held. Deputy Chair of Clare Town Council, Alan Parsley, recited from the Lawrence Binyon poem:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:The last line was repeated by those present. The Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Paul Lord, had a brief word of thanks to the fallen and the need to commemorate them.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
HERBERT PASK
Private 5965 2 Bn Suffolk Regiment
Enlisted Saffron Walden
Medals: 1914 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal
1st Theatre of War France 22.9.1914
Died 19th June 1915, killed in action, age 33
Burial/Memorial Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium
Born 1882 Stoke by Clare
Parents Walter Pask and Hannah née Peacocke
Cousin of John Meekings who died in 1919.
Herbert Pask was the youngest of seven children. The Pasks came from Stoke by Clare and lived in Chilton from about 1891. Walter Pask was in charge of the cattle at Chilton Lodge Farm. In 1901, Herbert was 18 and working as a hay binder in Black Notley. In 1911 he was living with his parents at Chilton Lodge Farm and was a horse keeper on a farm.
One of the streets in the new development off Stoke Road has been named after him.
Many thanks to Terence Farant for forwarding this information, kindly provided to him by Phil Gryce, Clare Town Councillor.
This information on Herbert will be included in the next Pask website update. His cousin, John Meekings, was the son of Charles and Ursula Meekings née Pask.
