Peter Clarn arrived in Adelaide from London in 1912 and became a club-hopping footballer, turning out for Cheltenham in 1912, Sturt in 1913 and North Adelaide from 1913 to 1915. Mainly a reserve team player, he made it to North’s first team in 1915 (when there were no reserve teams because of enlistments.) His brother David briefly played in the same Sturt and North reserves teams as Peter in 1913-14.
After enlisting in May 1916, Peter Clarn married Edith Dau on 9th August and just three days later embarked on the troop ship Ballarat, bound for England with the 50th Battalion. His civilian occupation had been “plasterer and modeler”. Clarn received a gunshot wound to his leg at the Battle of Bullecourt in April 1917 and was sent to a hospital in England.
He failed to fully recover and was returned to Australia in late 1917 and discharged on January 4th 1918. It is not known if he returned to his occupation of plasterer, but in 1948 he applied for a Hawker’s Licence, which meant that he intended to set up a street trader’s stall. Peter Clarn died in Adelaide in 1960.