Michael was the first child of Fred Clarke and May De Prose.
Michael was born in England mid-War. He came to Australia with his parents in 1948, arriving shortly before his 7th birthday. He lived in Portsmouth (1941-48), Kingaroy (1948-75), Tara (1975-1989) and Bundaberg (1990-1995).
During the first half of the 1960s he was a Go-Kart driver, and competed at events around south Queensland, including in Bundaberg, where Roger saw him race a couple of times. This map shows the territory.
He worked as a technician with PMG which later became Telecom (and nowadays is Telstra).
He married Lorraine Elizabeth Arthur 13 Feb 1965, and they had children 1 and 2. Lorraine left him in the early 1970s, and they divorced in (1973?). Lorraine did not re-marry.
Michael remarried Anne Ellen Staines 8 Mar 1975, and they moved to Tara (south-west of Dalby) in 1975. They had children 3 and 4. The family moved via Dalby to Bundaberg in 1989-90. After they'd moved to North Bundaberg, Fred and May moved there from Maryborough (c. 1991), and lived in the same street.
Michael was very involved with Craig's cricket and Kristine's hockey - even becoming a coach and treasurer of the hockey club. Kristine wrote "He loved playing with electronics, especially CB radios and computers. He was always the handy man, building anything!! If you couldn't find him, you'd find him in his 'room' buried under all his work!! He always took a lot on - too much I think - he always had a list a mile long to do around the house/yard - but not much got done in place of his hobbies".
Michael died of a heart-attack, working on his car, at the very early age of 54.
His youngest daughter, Kristine wrote that "Dad died 5 mths and 5 days before his 55th birthday in 1995, 15 days before my 15th birthday". Spooky?
Fred and May moved back to Maryborough some years after his death (c. 1998).
Anne stayed in Bundaberg, and remarried some years after Michael's death, on 15 Apr 2000, to Peter Charles Smart (b. 19 Apr 1940).
Here are Michael's children and (to date) 8 grandchildren, only 1 of whom was born in his lifetime:
The text here draws on my own knowledge of the family, plus more from Michael's sister Anne, and a lot more from Michael's daughter Kristine.
This a page within Roger Clarke's Family Web-Site
Contact: Roger Clarke
Created: 6 April 2008; Last Amended: 31 March 2010