Sub-Lieutenant, Fleet Air Arm
Born: July 17th 1923
Died: July 21st 1944
Age at Death: 21
Missing, believed drowned, July 21st 1944
Born on 17 July 1923 in Edmonton, Middlesex, to William Clinch, an engineer, and his wife Alice (née Whittington), Anthony served with the Fleet Air Arm, the air branch of the Royal Navy, in the Second World War. The Fleet Air Arm played a key role in the defence of Malta, an important Allied base, during the 1940–42 Siege of Malta.
Three of the most famous individual aircraft of the entire war, the Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters known as Faith, Hope and Charity, fought for the Fleet Air Arm in defence of Malta during this period. Fleet Air Arm units both attacked Axis shipping and supported the Allied invasion of Italy after the siege was lifted. It is not known when Clinch arrived in Malta, but in July 1944, while stationed at the Fleet Air Arm base at Saint Angelo, a fort in the centre of the Grand Harbour of Valletta, he went missing. He is commemorated at the Lee-on-Solent Fleet Air Arm Memorial in Hampshire.