It is very exciting to announce that Rebecca Clarke's book, A Bare Chronicle of Existence, has been released to the public. This book took over 18 months of research to put together and involved getting to know many descendants of the men who sailed HMS India. The primary source has been the letters of Richard Arnold Clarke and even after publication, letters have been found. One letter that was discovered recently was the letter Arnold wrote the day he signed up for WW1. He wrote - "It is one of the prerogatives of youth to act in haste and repent at leisure but moreover he who waits to see everything before he decides, usually never decides at all. After some good deliberation however, I have decided having passed the doctor this morning, I (needless to add with n others) am to be sworn in as a 'Seaman' in the Royal Naval Brigade. I might be able to get into the engine room later but doubt it; even so we were told that our service will probably be nearly all on land. We shall be living and drilling at the headquarters in Govan for a few days when we shall be dracfted to Deal."

Arnold wrote this on the 5th September 1914. A year later he found himself having made it to sea, having made it into the engine rooms, having made it into the North Sea after surviving a torpedo attack on the ship he was stationed on and having made it into an internment camp in Norway.  His life had changed forever.

You'll need to read the book to find out more!