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Smollett Clerk
Bank: National Bank of Scotland
Place of work: Edinburgh Leith Walk branch
Died: 28 June 1915
Smollett David McGregor Clerk was born on 25 April 1895 in Singapore, where his father worked for a telegraph company. He grew up in Scotland, and was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh.
In February 1911, when Clerk was 15, he went to work for National Bank of Scotland as an apprentice at its head office in Edinburgh. In April 1913 he transferred to Edinburgh Gorgie branch, becoming a clerk there the following February. He moved to Edinburgh Leith Walk branch in June 1914.
During the First World War Clerk left the bank to go on military service as a Private in the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). He was killed in action in the Dardanelles on 28 June 1915. He was 20 years old.
Smollett Clerk is commemorated on a bank war memorial at Gogarburn campus, Edinburgh.
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Message of remembrance
Rosemary Lim - Co-ordinator Singapore Cenotaph Project June 28 2015 4:01PM
Thank you for the information about the Banker's Company. Smollett Clerk is also remembered on the Singapore Cenotaph, although at the time they did not know his first names so he is listed as Clerk, ---. His mother was born in the Straits Settlements, in Penang. She was Lily Aitken, daughter of a well-known Singapore lawyer David Aitken, originally from Scotland. Smollett's paternal grandfather was Smollett William Clerk, who was a dentist in practice in Madras (now Chennai), where his father, Claud Louis Clerk was born. Smollett had two younger siblings, Walter and Ethel, both born in Singapore.