John Erskine Clarke

[1] Clarke rowed at Oxford and in 1849 was in the Wadham College eight that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.

In 1851 partnering C L Vaughan in a coxless pair, he was runner up in the Silver Goblets at Henley to James Aitken and Joseph William Chitty.

[7] In 1866 he moved to St Andrew Derby[1] and set to work with publisher William Macintosh to produce Chatterbox, a weekly paper for older children.

From 1872 until 1916 Clarke was a governor of Sir Walter St John's Trust and was instrumental in establishing Battersea Grammar School.

Following the transfer of Battersea and several other parishes in the north of Surrey to the Diocese of Rochester in 1877, he was appointed Rural Dean in 1880, and served as diocesan Proctor.

Clarke's aim was that the hospital should provide for "the artisan or self respecting middle class people" who preferred to pay something for their care instead of going into a Poor Law Institution (workhouse).

[10] On 27 July 1895, Clarke was made Honorary Chaplain to Queen Victoria,[11] and after her death in 1901 continued in the same role to King Edward VII.