Robert Athelstan Clarke was born at 'Rarere,' Kerikeri, on 21 January 1889.
His father Henry Wyatt Watling Clarke died when Robert was only four years old, and he was brought up on the small farm next to Rodmar at Waimate North, which he eventually inherited.
Between 1930 and 1942 he was a boat builder in Paihia, a craft that suited the coastal setting of his childhood.
His first wife Hannah Hilda Neilson (born 1886) died at Paihia on 20 August 1942.
He later married Helen Stimpson.
He died at Kawakawa Hospital on 23 October 1962.
Their daughter Valerie Anne Clarke (born 1940) married John Edward Tomlinson of Auckland.