William Branwhite Clarke, FRS (2 June 179816 June 1878) was an English geologist and clergyman, active in Australia. Early life and England Clarke was born at East Bergholt, in Suffolk, the eldest child of William Clarke, schoolmaster, and his wife Sarah, née Branwhite. He was partly educated at his father's house, under the Rev. R. G. S. Brown, B.D., and partly at Dedham Grammar School. In October 1817 he went to Cambridge and entered into residence at Jesus College. In 1819 he entered a poem for the Chancellor's Gold Medal; this was awarded to Macaulay, but Clarke's poem Pompeii, published in the same year, was judged second. He took his BA degree in 1821, and obtained his MA degree in 1824. In 1821 he was appointed curate of Ramsholt in Suffolk, and he acted in his clerical capacity in other places until 1839. He was also master of the Free School of East Bergholt for about 18 months in 1830–1. Having become interested in geology through the teachings of Adam Sedgwick, he used his opportunities and gathered many interesting facts on the geology of East Anglia which were embodied in a paper On the Geological Structure and Phenomena of Suffolk (Trans. Geol. Soc. 1837). He also communicated a series of papers on the geology of S.E. to the Magazine of Nat. Hist. (1837–1838). Career in Australia In 1839, after a severe illness, Clarke left England for New South Wales, mainly with the object of benefiting by the sea voyage. He had been commissioned by some of his English colleagues to ascertain the extent and character of the carboniferous formation in New South Wales (Clarke's letter to Sydney Morning Herald, 18 February 1852). He remained, however, in that country, and came to be regarded as the Father of Australian Geology. Clarke was headmaster of The King's School, Parramatta, in May 1839 until the end of 1840. Until 1870 he ministered to parishes from Parramatta to the Hawkesbury River, then of Campbelltown, and finally of Willoughby. He zealously devoted attention to the geology of the country, with results that have been of paramount importance. In 1841 he found specimens of gold, but he was not the first European who had obtained it in situ in the country. (This honour goes correctly to Government Surveyor James McBrien who found flakes at Locksley NSW in February 1823). Clarke described finding it both in the