A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Clarke, Thomas Pickering
CLARKE. (Retired Commander, 1843. f-p. 15; h-p., 32.)
Thomas Pickering Clarke entered the Navy, 22 April, 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board L’Immorlalité 36, Capt. Hon. Henry Hotham, in which frigate, while cruizing off Bordeaux, he witnessed the capture, 26 Oct. following, of Le Diable à Quatre privateer, of 16 guns and 150 men. From 16 Oct. 1801, until March, 1813, he next served, under Capt. Edw. W. C. R. Owen, as Midshipman, Master’s Mate, and Lieutenant (commission dated 28 April, 1807), in the Nemesis 28, Immortalité 36, Clyde 38, and Inconstant 36; and, during that period, shared in the bombardment of Dieppe, St. Valery en Caux, and Boulogne, was present in several smart skirmishes with the French flotilla, and attended, in the Clyde, the expedition to Flushing in Aug. 1809. On leaving the Inconstant, Mr. Clarke joined the Mariner armed ship, Capt. Robt. Russell, employed on rocket service in North America, whence he returned home in 1813 on board the Shannon 88, Capt. Philip Bowes Vere Broke. After serving for a short time in the Monmouth 64, bearing the flag in the Downs of Vice- Admiral Thos. Foley, he became attached to the Superb 74, flag-ship on the coasts of America and France of the Hon. Sir Henry Hotham. Commander Clarke, who has been on half-pay since 7 Sept. 1815, assumed his present rank 17 Jan. 1843.