[2] He arrived in London on 28 September 1914, just after the outbreak of World War I, having travelled on the RMS Tagus,[3] which, after this journey, became a hospital ship.

[4] Other passengers included Aucher Warner, cricketer and future Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago; the colonial administrator Herbert Peebles; Kenneth Knaggs, the son of Sir Samuel Knaggs, the Colonial Secretary of Trinidad and Tobago at the time; Roland Allport, a medical practitioner; Thomas Orford, the Government medical officer for Grenada; and Richard Batson, who played cricket for Barbados and qualified as a medical practitioner in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1920.

[13] Clarke qualified in 1918 with the Conjoint Diploma (MRCS (Eng) and LRCP (Lond)), in 1919 as DPH, in 1920 as BChir, and in 1921 as FRCS (Edin) and MB (Cambridge).

[18] In 1941, the area was so badly bombed that 112 Newington Causeway remained the only building standing in the row of shops and houses; one wall of his surgery was open to the elements.

[22] Other early members included C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Una Marson, and Paul Robeson.

He was active in the West African Students' Union (WASU), which helped influence Ghanaian nationalism.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst holds Du Bois's papers, which include an extensive correspondence with Clarke.

)[14] A blue plaque honouring Clarke was placed on a building near the site of his practice in April 2023,[37] sponsored by Black History Walks in collaboration with the Nubian Jak Community Trust.

[39] Belfield Clarke was one of the figures highlighted by LGBT History Month UK in February 2024, in connection to that year's theme: Medicine.