100 Days of Heroes: Tasmanian-born champion golfer Clyde Pearce was cut down in his prime in World War I

BEFORE he was a soldier, Clyde Pearce was a champion golfer and the first home-grown winner of the Australian Open.

Second Lieutenant Clyde Bowman Pearce is remembered at tree 261 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue at Hobart.

BEFORE he was a soldier, Clyde Pearce was a champion golfer and the first home-grown winner of the Australian Open.

Pearce was the second of Edward and Emmeline Pearce’s three sons and was born at Battery Point in February 1888.

The Bowman brothers of Battery Point.

The family lived at Narryna — now a folk heritage museum — at 103 Hampden Rd.

He competed in his first Australian amateurs championships in 1905 before winning his first national title at Kensington, New South Wales, in 1909, aged 21.

After turning professional he toured England, Scotland and the US with his brother Bruce who was described as the world’s best left-handed golfer.

In 1912 he moved to a sheep station near Pingelly, Western Australia, where he would also win the state championship twice.

Pearce enlisted in May 1915 and left from Freemantle that September, among reinforcements for the 10th Light Horse Regiment aboard HMAT Anchises.

He served in Egypt and at Gallipoli before going on to France where he was promoted to second lieutenant.

Clyde Pearce tees off during the 1909 Australian golf championship. Picture: AUSTRALIAN GOLF DIGEST

During fighting on Messines Ridge on June 10, 1917, Pearce was killed by machinegun fire, aged 29.

While many were lost in the advance, the Australian forces gained and held their objective. Eyewitness Corporal George Jones said Pearce was within 150m of the German trenches when he fell.

Two stretcher-bearers buried him in the field under a poplar tree the following day. He is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial in Belgium.

Second Lieutenant Clyde Pearce’s plaque on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue at Hobart.

In his last letter home, dated May 30, he signed off by saying, “If I get a crack, goodbye. With heaps of love.”

A letter from A. Dowling to Clyde’s family was published in the Pingelly Leader on September 20, 1917, describing “the big fight that is just over”.

“Nothing that I can write can possibly convey to you the sorrow and regret that is felt by the whole battalion at his loss.

“Men in the ranks, who did not even know that I was a friend of his, started telling me what a fine fellow they had lost. They would follow him anywhere.”

His platoon sergeant described Pearce as “a hero and a gentleman.”

Second Lieutenant Clyde Bowman Pearce is remembered at tree number 261 on the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue and on honour boards at the former Davey St Congregational church, St George’s Church at Battery Point and the Hobart Town Hall.

MORE 100 DAYS OF HEROES:

FAMILY REMEMBERS ARTHUR FOWLER AND WILLIAM COPCUTT

TERRY FAMILY’S DOUBLE GRIEF OVER BROTHERS IN ARMS

BRAVE KEITH HERITAGE WAS THE FIRST TO JOIN UP

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