Walter Clarke

Walter Clarke (8 April 1928 - 23 January 2007) or Walter y Chleree was a Manx language speaker, activist, and teacher who was one of the last people to learn Manx from the few remaining native speakers on the Isle of Man. His work recording them with the Irish Folklore Commission helped to ensure that a spoken record of the Manx language survived. Early life Clarke was raised in Bark Lane in Ramsey. He spent his early years in the company of his grandfather, a retired sea captain in Sulby. It was from his grandfather he learned his first words of the Manx language: "Grandfather had lots of Manx, so it came to me quite naturally". As a young man away from the Isle of Man on National Service, he came to the realisation that the language he learned from his grandfather was dying without anyone noticing. Manx language