Herbert Lincoln Clarke

Herbert Lincoln Clarke was born in Woburn, Massachusetts on September 12, 1867. He moved with his family to Toronto in 1880. Since his father was the organist at the Jarvis St. Baptist Church and his three older brothers played with the Regimental Band of the Queen's Own Rifles, it was not surprising that the young Clarke showed an interest in music. He himself said in his autobiography, How I Became a Cornetist, that it was growing up "in a musical environment that played a large part in turning me to the musically artistic as a life profession".
In September of 1889 he married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Loudon, with whom he had two children: Vivian (Grace) in 1890 and James (Edward James Watkin) in 1892. In the spring of 1892, he left Canada once again, after successfully auditioning for the Gilmore Band. It was during this period that he divorced Lizzie Loudon and married Lillian Bell Hause, with whom he had two more children, Ruby Bell and Herbert L. Clarke, Jr. In 1898 he returned to Sousa's band, with whom he toured extensively, and later became Sousa's assistant director, conducting the band in many recording sessions.