.gif)
Bob Clarke (historian)
Encyclopedia
Bob Clarke, born in Scarborough in 1964 is an English
archaeologist
and historian
.
in 1981 at the height of the Cold War
. He served at RAF Leeming
, Lyneham
, Ascension Island
and St Athan
during a nine year term. During that time he worked on Jet Provost, Lockheed Hercules and Panavia Tornado
aircraft. From 1990 he worked across Europe as a structural engineer on Airbus A300-600 series and Boeing 747
's. Clarke also spent a year at the Dutch aeromanufacturer Fokker
as a production engineer on the Fokker F100
medium range airliner. From 1996 until May 2008 Clarke was located at Boscombe Down lecturing Aircraft Structures, Systems and Theory of Flight at FES Training Centre. He is now part of the Curriculum
Development team for Ascent Flight Training Ltd, part of the VT Group
.
with his wife Sarah
, visiting cities and sites that had lain behind the 'Iron Curtain'. This formed the background to his first major book, Four Minute Warning: Britain's Cold War, published by Tempus in 2005. Still in print, the book is in its third impression. Following this Clarke researched the Berlin Airlift, culminating in the publication of Ten Tons for Tempelhof: The Berlin Airlift published in May 2007. In this the memories of many veterans were published for the first time along with pictures from private collections. In February 2008 The Archaeology of Airfields was published by the recently formed The History Press
(formally Tempus Publishing
). Airfields is the first publication to bring together all periods of military aviation, including the Cold War and discuss them utilising a framework of landscape archaeology. In December 2008 The Jet Provost: A Little Plane With a Big History was released by Amberley Publishing, followed in October 2009 by The Illustrated Guide to Armageddon, and in October 2010 by Remember Scarborough again through Amberley. A table top book on the Prehistoric archaeology of Wiltshire, in collaboration with Wiltshire Heritage, is due in 2011. Aside to the books Clarke has published papers in a number of academic journals on archaeological themes. Subjects range Cold War
nuclear bunkers in Wiltshire, Bronze Age
metalwork, Roman building techniques, earthworks near Stonehenge
and Saxon executions. Clarke has held the position of Honorary Review Editor for the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
, the Wiltshire County journal, since 2006.
in archaeology at the University of Bath
, he was educated in archaeology under professor Mick Aston
and Julian Richards
. Followed by a period at Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford
where he obtained his honours degree in post-compulsory education. Clarke held the post of QinetiQ
Archaeologist at Boscombe Down between 1996-2008. His research areas cover a number of periods including Prehistoric and Roman
Wiltshire
and British Military
Architecture
of the 20th Century (airfields and nuclear
), an area where he is considered an authority. Clarke is currently reading archaeology at the University of Exeter
studying Home Defence Region 7, a Cold War administrative areas in the South-West of the United Kingdom. He is credited with the discovery of Broad Town
Man, a Saxon
execution burial from North Wiltshire.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
Aviation career
Upon leaving school Clarke joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in 1981 at the height of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. He served at RAF Leeming
RAF Leeming
RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force station in North Yorkshire, UK.HRH The Duchess of Cornwall is the Honorary Air Commodore of RAF Leeming. The Station Commander is Group Captain Anthony Innes....
, Lyneham
RAF Lyneham
RAF Lyneham is a Royal Air Force station in Wiltshire, England. It was the home of all the Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force before they were relocated to RAF Brize Norton.The station was also home to No...
, Ascension Island
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
and St Athan
St Athan
St Athan is a village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.-History and amenities:The English name is a corruption of the Welsh female Saint Tathan, described by Iolo Morgannwg as the daughter of the King of Gwent. The village and parish church is dedicated to St Tathan. There are...
during a nine year term. During that time he worked on Jet Provost, Lockheed Hercules and Panavia Tornado
Panavia Tornado
The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...
aircraft. From 1990 he worked across Europe as a structural engineer on Airbus A300-600 series and Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
's. Clarke also spent a year at the Dutch aeromanufacturer Fokker
Fokker
Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. The company operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Schwerin, Germany, moving to the Netherlands in 1919....
as a production engineer on the Fokker F100
Fokker F100
The Fokker 100 is a medium size twin-turbofan airliner from the Fokker company. Low operational costs and almost no competition in the 100-seat short-range class made it a best seller when it was introduced in the late 1980s, but decayed due to increasing competition. Production ended in 1997 with...
medium range airliner. From 1996 until May 2008 Clarke was located at Boscombe Down lecturing Aircraft Structures, Systems and Theory of Flight at FES Training Centre. He is now part of the Curriculum
Curriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
Development team for Ascent Flight Training Ltd, part of the VT Group
VT Group
VT Group plc was a British defence and services company, formerly known as Vosper Thornycroft. The Company had diversified from shipbuilding into various engineering and support services, becoming involved in many areas of provision through five main operating groups: VT Communications, VT...
.
Written career
After leaving the RAF he travelled around EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
with his wife Sarah
Sarah
Sarah or Sara was the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai...
, visiting cities and sites that had lain behind the 'Iron Curtain'. This formed the background to his first major book, Four Minute Warning: Britain's Cold War, published by Tempus in 2005. Still in print, the book is in its third impression. Following this Clarke researched the Berlin Airlift, culminating in the publication of Ten Tons for Tempelhof: The Berlin Airlift published in May 2007. In this the memories of many veterans were published for the first time along with pictures from private collections. In February 2008 The Archaeology of Airfields was published by the recently formed The History Press
The History Press
The History Press is one of the UK’s largest local and specialist history publishers, publishing approximately 500 books per year.Created in December 2007, The History Press has integrated core elements of the NPI Media Group within it, including all existing published titles, plus all the future...
(formally Tempus Publishing
Tempus Publishing
Tempus Publishing was an England-based publishing company. It was founded in 1993, as The Chalford Publishing Company, by Alan Sutton and others. Tempus were part of the Nonsuch Publishing Group. Tempus mainly published history books and had bases in Germany, France, Belgium and the United States...
). Airfields is the first publication to bring together all periods of military aviation, including the Cold War and discuss them utilising a framework of landscape archaeology. In December 2008 The Jet Provost: A Little Plane With a Big History was released by Amberley Publishing, followed in October 2009 by The Illustrated Guide to Armageddon, and in October 2010 by Remember Scarborough again through Amberley. A table top book on the Prehistoric archaeology of Wiltshire, in collaboration with Wiltshire Heritage, is due in 2011. Aside to the books Clarke has published papers in a number of academic journals on archaeological themes. Subjects range Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
nuclear bunkers in Wiltshire, Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
metalwork, Roman building techniques, earthworks near Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
and Saxon executions. Clarke has held the position of Honorary Review Editor for the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1853, and is one of the largest county-based archaeological societies in the UK. It runs the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, Wiltshire which has the best Bronze Age collections in Britain, including finds from Avebury...
, the Wiltshire County journal, since 2006.
Educational career
Clarke is a visiting tutorTutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
in archaeology at the University of Bath
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
, he was educated in archaeology under professor Mick Aston
Mick Aston
Professor Michael Antony 'Mick' Aston is a prominent English archaeologist. As an academic, he has taught at a number of universities across the United Kingdom, and has helped popularise the discipline amongst the British public by appearing as the resident academic on the Channel 4 television...
and Julian Richards
Julian Richards
Julian Richards FSA, MIFA is a British television and radio presenter, writer and archaeologist with over 30 years experience of fieldwork and publication.-Early career:...
. Followed by a period at Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
where he obtained his honours degree in post-compulsory education. Clarke held the post of QinetiQ
QinetiQ
Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...
Archaeologist at Boscombe Down between 1996-2008. His research areas cover a number of periods including Prehistoric and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
and British Military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
of the 20th Century (airfields and nuclear
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
), an area where he is considered an authority. Clarke is currently reading archaeology at the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
studying Home Defence Region 7, a Cold War administrative areas in the South-West of the United Kingdom. He is credited with the discovery of Broad Town
Broad Town
Broad Town is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, 8 miles south-west of Swindon. According to the 2001 census its population is 584.The parish has an active social club that is open on a Friday evening from 8pm located in the village hall...
Man, a Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
execution burial from North Wiltshire.