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John Erskine Clarke  was born in Calcutta in 1827 into a Scottish family of East India Company officials.  (Details of his Family Tree can be found here).
When his father died in 1835, the family returned to Edinburgh.  In 1846 Clarke graduated at Wadham College, Oxford but remained there for an extra year studying theology.

He was ordained as Curate of St Mary, Low Harrogate in 1851, moving a year later to be Curate at St Mary, Lichfield, and again in 1856 when he became Vicar of St Michael’s in Derby.

During his stay at St Michael’s he started the world’s first Parish Magazine, the “inset” of which was used widely inside parish magazines throughout the country. He continued to edit the inset personally until 1895.

 As a clergyman (& author) in Derby during the 1860s, he felt that children of that day were badly served by the “blood & thunder” stories of the time (the Penny Dreadfuls), and thought that he would try and provide them with more wholesome material.  In 1863 he founded “The Prize”, a paper for young children.

With the help of a skilled wood engraver named Johnston, he set to work with London publisher William Macintosh to produce a halfpenny weekly paper for older children which he called “Chatterbox”. 

The first edition went on sale on 1st December 1866.  By 1870 the magazine was transferred to another London publisher Wells Gardner, who continued to publish it for the next 60 years.

In 1866 Clarke was appointed Perpetual Curate of St Andrew, Litchurch, Derby, and also Prebendary of Lichfield.  In the same year he made a visit to the Holy Land.

In 1871 he started another weekly newspaper, Church Bells, which had a broad religious approach. (He continued to edit this until 1906)

Erskine Clarke left Derby for London in 1872 where he became Vicar of Battersea, a post he held for 37 years. According to Bulmer’s Directory of 1892, he lived at 6 Altenburgh Gardens, Clapham Common and at The Grange, Elvington, North Yorkshire where he gifted £40 per annum for the Rector.

He immediately founded the “Provident Dispensary” in Battersea, and also the “The Vicarage School for Girls”, which he installed initially at the old vicarage house near the River Thames, subsequently re-locating to Clapham Common.  The lady who became its first and only Principal also came from Derby.  Sadly the school did not survive the early years of the 20th century, closing in 1910.

From 1872 until 1916 he was a Governor of Sir Walter St John’s Trust.

He is remembered in Battersea as a builder of churches – he oversaw and was the inspiration behind the great explosion of churches in Battersea during the second half of the nineteenth century.  Through Clarke’s personal endeavours, the following churches were built in Battersea between 1872 and 1890:-

St Mark’s, Battersea Rise
St Peter’s, Plough Road
St Matthew’s
St Luke’s

In 1875 he became an Honorary Canon of Winchester, and was appointed Rural Dean in 1880.

As a member of the Board of Governors of the “Provident Dispensary” (Battersea), Canon Clarke felt there was an urgent need for an in-patient hospital in Battersea. By way of public subscription and charitable gifts, Clarke purchased a house in Five Houses Lane, Battersea, (now Bolingbroke Grove) belonging to Viscount Bolingbroke, and founded his `House of Sickness' - the Bolingbroke Hospital in 1880, which provided care for, in Clarke's words, "the artisan or self respecting middle class people" who preferred to make some payment for their care rather than go into a Poor Law Institution.

The establishment’s respect for Clarke’s achievements is reflected in his subsequent appointments – in 1895 he was made Hon. Chaplain to Queen Victoria, and after her death in 1901, Hon. Chaplain to King Edward VII.

1901 saw the completion of his new St Luke’s Vicarage (in fact his own property) to which he moved from Altenburgh Gardens.  (He had completed the building of St Luke’s church in 1889 and was also Vicar of St Luke’s from 1901 until 1914).

1905 saw his appointment as Hon. Canon of Southwark, and in 1910, Hon. Chaplain to King George V.

Clarke suffered a severe stroke in 1916 and he died in 1920 aged 92.

There are memorials to him in both St Mary’s and St Luke’s Churches.  In St Mary’s there is some fine oak panelling to be seen in the East End, commemorating his long stay in Battersea, and also a memorial plaque on the west wall of the nave.