Clifford Arthur James Sparkman

by his Cousin Jack Sparkman, 1997

Clifford was born on the 25th April 1916 at the University Hospital, Edmonton, Canada. After his father's death he came to live with my parents in Lady Grey, South Africa, until 1926, when he returned to his mother in Canada.

During World War II he was a Corporal in the 10th Canadian Field Ambulance in North Africa, Italy and later in North West Europe.

On 4th December 1954 at Edmonton, Canada, he married Vivian Loretta Bennett (Bromley), who was born on the 25th February 1914. In 1970 he was working for Canadian Bechtal who were erecting a refinery for Gulf Oil outside Edmonton, costing $85 000 000 and in September 1971 he was sent to Pascagoula, Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico for six weeks to help repair an ammonia plant that had been damaged by a hurricane that swept across that part of the country in August. The temperatures were in the 90's during his stay. In contrast, on 25th October, he and his wife Vivian were snowbound when they ran into a blizzard at Vegreville while travelling to Edmunton.

In 1975 the Company sent him to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where temperatures in July / August were 130 - 140 degrees F. October of that year saw them in Fort McMurray, North Alberta, Canada where he was involved in the electrical work of a huge refinery on the Alberta tar sands. (oil from shale)

In 1977 he left the Bechtal Group and became an electrical inspector for an engineering firm in Edmonton but, on the lst December 1978 they took up residence in the town of New Serepta, about 35 miles South East of Edmonton, where he continued at his work.