- Bob Clarke (historian)
Bob Clarke, born in Scarborough in 1964 is an English archaeologist and
historian .Aviation career
Upon leaving school Clarke joined the
Royal Air Force in 1981 at the height of theCold War . He served at RAF Leeming, Lyneham,Ascension Island andSt Athan during a nine year term. During that time he worked onJet Provost ,Lockheed Hercules andPanavia Tornado aircraft. From 1990 he worked across Europe as a structural engineer onAirbus A300-600 series andBoeing 747 's. Clarke also spent a year at the Dutch aeromanufacturerFokker as a production engineer on theFokker F100 medium range airliner. From 1996 until May 2008 Clarke was located atBoscombe Down lecturing Aircraft Structures, Systems and Theory of Flight at FES Training Centre. He is now part of theCurriculum Development team for Ascent Flight Training Ltd, part of theVT Group .Literary career
After leaving the RAF he travelled around
Europe with his wifeSarah , 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 theBerlin 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 History Press (formallyTempus Publishing ). "Airfields" is the first publication to bring together all periods of military aviation and discuss them utilising a framework of landscape archaeology. Clarke's future projects include "The Jet Provost: A Little Plane With a Big History" (2008), "Airfield Architecture" (2007/8) & "The Bombardment of Scarborough" (2009). Aside to the books Clarke has published papers in a number of academic journals on archaeological themes. Subjects rangeCold War nuclear bunkers in Wiltshire,Bronze Age metalwork, Roman building techniques, earthworks nearStonehenge and Saxon executions. Forthcoming papers include the Aviation Landscape of Wiltshire. Clarke has held the position of Honorary Review Editor for the "Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society ", the Wiltshire County journal, since 2006.Educational career
Clarke is a visiting
tutor in archaeology at theUniversity of Bath , he was educated in archaeology under professorMick Aston andJulian Richards . Followed by a period atWestminster Institute of Education ,Oxford where he obtained hishonours degree in post-compulsory education. Clarke held the post ofQinetiQ Archaeologist at Boscombe Down between 1996-2008. His research areas cover a number of periods includingPrehistoric and RomanWiltshire and BritishMilitary Architecture of the 20th Century (airfields and nuclear), an area where he is considered an authority. He is credited with the discovery ofBroad Town Man, a Saxon execution burial from North Wiltshire.External links
* [http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba78/feat2.shtml British Archaeology] - Boscombe Bowmen
* [http://www.clarkeology.co.uk Bob Clarke] - home page
* [http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/clarke/clarke.html Saxon Execution]
* [http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/ Wiltshire Heritage] (Devizes Museum)
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