Obituary from issue number 1 (1971) of The Western Socialist
Ennis “Cheerio” Clarke was bom in Walmsley, England, about 1895. His parents moved the family to the Boston. Massachusetts, area sometime prior to the World War I period where Ennis remained until the late Thirties when he settled in the town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He made his living for many years as a professional photographer and, in a small way, as a dealer in philatelic stamps.
“Cheerio.” as he was known to just about all who knew him to any extent, met members of the World Socialist Party during his Boston days and found our political philosophy conformed with his own. He remained a member of the WSP and a convinced socialist until his death on Nov. 9, 1970. at the Veterans Home in Bristol. Rhode Island. As a draftee in World War I, where he was stationed for the duration in a training camp in So. Carolina, “Cheerio” was entitled to Veteran benefits. He was in and out of the V.A. Hospital in Providence, R. I. for a number of years before his death, the victim of cancer. He had never married.
“Cheerio” was also an accomplished amateur musician and performed creditably on the banjo, guitar and mandolin. He was well-known and liked in E. Greenwich as the following excerpt from a letter to this writer from one of his close friends, Don Rice, will attest. Our correspondent, who now lives in Ohio and edits a Quarterly “Journal of American Opinion” — SCHISM — writes:
“Trips back east won't seem the same now, without being able to stop by his studio-apartment for a visit More than any other person, he was responsible for opening my eyes to the possibilities of alternatives. There were many in East Greenwich who were influenced by his youthful readiness to challenge old fogies one-fourth his age. He went on the wagon once for years; we kids got him drinking beer again, going out to bars or just sitting up in his studio playing guitar and singing. It never seemed odd to us at nineteen and twenty and twenty-one to have as a member of our crowd a man in his sixties. Though “Cheerio” didn't neglect those his own age. It was always great fun to sit on the courthouse wall listening to him argue with two of his regular cronies; a part-time policeman and a Jehovah's Witness. He was considered a harmless crank by many in town, but those of us who knew him well, knew that he was a good man deeply concerned with correcting social injustice and the inequities of modem life."
Which we, his comrades, would only amend by pointing out that “Cheerio’' went beyond a desire to correct “social injustice,” something that most people would profess to favor provided it could be done within the framework of capitalist society. “Cheerio” was a revolutionist in the most meaningful sense of the term, even organizing propaganda trips to E. Greenwich by his Boston comrades in order that those in E. Greenwich who cared to listen could hear and debate the case for a brand new way of life with others than himself. There were, over the years, a few such trips when at least two carloads of WSPers made the 65-mile trip from Boston.
In his final days, “Cheerio” was able to have visits from a number of his comrades, including Gilbert McClatchle of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, who was in our area last September. He was also enabled to see consummated his wish that his possessions should go to the World Socialist Party. Several of us made the trip to E. Greenwich where we removed many items, including a valuable stamp collection and a number of musical instruments, all of which are adding much-needed funds to aid socialist work.
Those of us who knew him, including this writer who visited him on a number of occasions over the last few years, will miss him. I can attest, as one who has examined much of the voluminous correspondence accumulated by Comrade Clarke — in the capacity of a sort of literary executor — that he has done his part in spreading the case for socialism. He has made his mark in the World Socialist Movement.
Harry Morrison
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