Help To Find Lost Uncle Stephen Clarke

[gclarke]

Hi,

My uncle was in the British Army from 1972 - 1994. I have very little information about him that is recent.

We know from letters sent to his father that he married a Malaysian/Thai lady and that they had a couple of children. The children would be around 20 years old now.

Stephen is 58 years old now. He has a sister, Janet, and a brother Malcolm. We thought from the letters that he sent to his father that he retired to Singapore, however, after further searches, people he served in the army reckon he had a property in Thailand.

Stephen changed religion to marry, so it is quite likely that he also changed his surname or added another to it.

Can anyone suggest anything to help my search. I've exhausted all avenues in Malaysia and Singapore. The new info about Thailand I've only had a couple of days. I hope that the family are safe and well and not too affected by the Tsunami.

Thanks

Gary Clarke

[sbk]

If he changed his religion to marry then it is most likely his wife is Muslim. If she is Malaysian/Thai then, to me, this just reinforces that idea. Your best bet would be to check with the embassy to see if he has registered with them and perhaps check around the deep south as that would be where they might have ended up. Songkhla/Hat Yai would be a good starting point.

[The_Other_Mac]

There's no tradition of or requirement to convert to Buddhism in order to marry, so his new religion would probably be Islam. Most (but certainly not all) Thai Muslims live in the south of the country (not only the three provinces where the troubles are).

When you convert to Islam you get an Arabic name, as far as I know it only needs to be the first name, not surname. You don't need to legally register it or use it, and many Thai Muslims don't.

Almost all foreign-Thai marriages are registered, because it makes it far easier to legally remain in the country. So his name would be in a marriage register. Also Thai immigration should have a record of his visa (it would probably be type "non-immigrant O"). And Thai police ought to have a record of him reporting his address every 90 days, which not everyone does. Hopefully someone else here can advise you better whether those are actually useful in any way....

He must have a pension, but Britain doesn't pay pensions to people with addresses in Thailand (because they worry that the death wouldn't be recorded). They do make payments to people with addresses in Malaysia though, so that might have left a false trail for you. Perhaps if you can find where the statements are going, they might have a record of where the withdrawals are happening.

I know this is a bit obvious, but most foreigners register their address with their embassy, which generally do help relatives trying to get in touch...

[Thomas_Merton]

You could also contact the International Committee of the Red Cross.

They have a web site devoted to those trying to contact family members:

http://FamilyLinks.icrc.org

Getting in touch with your local (national) Red Cross can also help.

The Red Cross has enormous resources often not available to other organisations.

Edited May 12, 2005 by Thomas_Merton

[gclarke]

Thanks for your help. My uncle is drawing his army service pension. I have sent letters to Steve through them but had no responses back. So it is quite interesting to note the comment made earlier about pensions being paid to Malaysian addresses.

Is it easy to contact the Embassy? In general do they take long to respond to individuals?

Are the Southern regions of Thailand affected by the Tsunami?

[Scott]

You can probably have the "Foreign Office" whatever it is called in your country try and find him. They will be in touch with the embassies on your behalf. That helps to cut down on a lot of long distance phone calls and dealing with people in the embassy who don't take you seriously.

I was once "missing" for several months. Had left a job in a war zone and gone to another war zone. Letter to the family got lost in the mail and they got in touch with the U.S. Dept. of State, who tracked me down in less than 48 hours. I just a message to get in touch with my family.

Your uncle maybe a little harder to find, but persistence should pay off.

[gclarke]

Thanks Scott,

I've been looking for Steve for nearly 3 years now.

I'm not getting much luck with any "white pages" websites or phone listing sites for Thailand. Singapore has a good one that lists names and addresses.

[Explorer]

If your uncle change religion to muslim as most TV members would say, it is very common that the names would change to something similar from the original name -

Sufian Clarke Abdullah or Suhaimi Clarke Abdullah

Anyway, have you tried the local TV3 in Malaysia? They always have this early morning program where people are trying to find their long lost love ones. And their success rate is something like 80% (i think ).

Although you are not local Malaysian, but i believe with your info stating that your uncle married to a Malaysian/Thai lady and staying in this region, they might be interested to help you out.

Good luck

Explorer

[Thomas_Merton]

A word of obvious caution to all members, from someone who for many years has worked with similar cases as outlined in the original posting:

1. Should anyone know of the whereabouts of Stephan Clarke, please do not disclose this information via TV.

2. With all respect for gclrarke, be sure to contact Stephan Clarke to secure his approval.

3. Again, with respect for gclarke, establish some guarantee of the identity of gclarke and his/her right to be informed of the location of Stephan Clarke – the best way being, to give Stephan Clarke, gclarke’s contact address, and ask Stephan Clarke to make contact.

There could be a good reason that has nothing to do with us, as to why Stephen Clarke has apparently disappeared.

Edited May 12, 2005 by Thomas_Merton

[Darknight]

A word of obvious caution to all members, from someone who for many years has worked with similar cases as outlined in the original posting:

1. Should anyone know of the whereabouts of Stephan Clarke, please do not disclose this information via TV.

2. With all respect for gclrarke, be sure to contact Stephan Clarke to secure his approval.

3. Again, with respect for gclarke, establish some guarantee of the identity of gclarke and his/her right to be informed of the location of Stephan Clarke – the best way being, to give Stephan Clarke, gclarke’s contact address, and ask Stephan Clarke to make contact.

There could be a good reason that has nothing to do with us, as to why Stephen Clarke has apparently disappeared.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree,

Missing Persons post are not allowed on TV as we can not determine the intention of the seeker, however well meaning it might be.

/post closed