The son of a British army bomb disposal expert yesterday wept at the scene where his father was killed while trying to defuse an IRA mine 32 years ago.
William James Clark was killed instantly when the 40lb bomb, discovered on the main Sion Mills to Clady road in Co Tyrone, blew up as he was trying to defuse it. The incident took place on August 3rd, 1972, and on the anniversary yesterday, Mr Russell Clark became the first member of his family to visit the scene.
"I needed closure. I was only seven years of age when my father was killed by the IRA. I was deemed too young to go to his funeral, and I've mourned my father for the last 32 years. But today I feel that I've finally got closure."
He is now a media student in Middlesbrough College, and is filming a documentary about his journey to the scene of his father's death.
Mr Clark's father died in the bloodiest year of the Troubles. A total of 496 people died in 1972, the year in which Bloody Monday in Claudy, Bloody Friday in Belfast and Bloody Sunday in Derry took place. He is listed as the 524th victim of the Troubles.
Warrant Officer Clark had used a small charge to blow the top off an oil drum which contained the bomb. However, as he approached the device after the controlled explosion, the bomb exploded. He had only arrived in the North nine days before he was killed.
As he laid flowers on behalf of his family at the scene yesterday, Mr Clark wept openly and cried: "I miss you so much." He also placed a card alongside the flowers which had written on it - "The passage of time will never lessen the pain. Forever in our thoughts and memories, Mavis and your five sons."
Mr Clark joined the British army several years after his father's death. "The pain of the last 32 years has been absolutely immense, and that's why it has taken so long for me to come here but it was my pilgrimage to say goodbye to my dad. I have now found spiritual peace with him," he said.