Cecil Clarke, the former Mayor of Runnymede and Borough Councillor for Englefield Green East has died at the age of 87 following a short illness.
Whilst I did not personally know Cecil as he had moved out of the area before I was elected to the Borough Council I know that he is very fondly remembered by many local residents so I include a short obituary written by Cllr Pat Roberts below:
Cecil Clarke died peacefully on Sunday 30th March 2008 at the Norwich & Norfolk Hospital after a short illness.
Cecil was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, on Tuesday 24th August 1920 the younger of two sons to Herbert and Florence Clarke.
During World War II he was at the National Physical Laboratory in the Radio Division developing radio meteorological aids for the study and detection of thunderstorms which was essential information for Bomber Command.
He then went on to the design and use of equipment for ionospheric propagation studies and set up the facilities at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and at Khartoum University, where he made the ionospheric observations for the total eclipse of the sun in 1951.
In 1953 he went to Harwell, Oxfordshire the birthplace of UK Nuclear Industry. He then spent 4 months in Australia designing and installing equipment for observing the atomic weapons tests. He returned to DSIR after a year and continued his studies and the effect of atmospheric noise upon communication systems.
From 1959 to 1965 he was head of the DSIR Radio and Space Research Station in Singapore where he continued his studies and was able to track and monitor satellite signals.
On his return to the UK he joined the Science Research Council one of whose many interests was to manage the UK contribution to the European Space Research Organisation (ESA). Then in 1966 he became the project manager for building the ESA satellite tracking station in the Falkland Islands to which he made several visits until 1972.
He had lived in Englefield Green, Surrey from 1956 and on retirement in 1976 he became a Runnymede Borough Councillor. Royal Holloway University London was located in Runnymede and the Borough nominated him as the official Runnymede representative on the College Council. He served on a number of Committees and spent a great deal of time at the College.
He was also elected Leader of the Runnymede majority Group in 1977 and was also Chairman of the Planning Committee. He became Mayor of Runnymede in 1981/1982.
His funeral will be held at the Norwich & Norfolk Crematorium on Friday 11th April 2008 at 1.30pm.
If you wish to send floral tributes or a Charitable Donation they should be directed to:
Peter Taylor Funeral Directors
85 Unthank Road
Norwich
Norfolk
NR2 2PE
01603 760787
