Amy Key Clarke (21 December 1892 – 20 June 1980)
[Obituary, The ''Times'', 23 June 1980] was an English mystical poet and writer, and a teacher at
The Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...
.
Early life and education
Clarke was born at 121
Elgin Crescent
Elgin Crescent is a street in Notting Hill, London, England.
It runs west from Portobello Road, crosses Ladbroke Grove and at its south-western end joins Clarendon Road. The section between Portobello Road and Kensington Park Road is formed of ...
, Kensington,
London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
to Henry Clarke, a
lecturer
Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...
and tutor, and his wife Amy (''née'' Key, also known as
Mrs. Henry Clarke), a writer and first
headmistress
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. In som ...
of
Truro High School
Truro High School for Girls is an independent day and boarding school for girls in Truro, Cornwall. The school consists of a girls-only prep school, senior school and sixth form. It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.
History
The s ...
.
She was educated at
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.
History
St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...
and at
The Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...
where she was a student at St Hilda’s House from 1905 to 1906 – the senior house of the college.
Clarke and Florence Cunningham
In 1917 Clarke stayed for seven weeks with Florence Cunningham (1871–1950, granddaughter of writer
Peter Cunningham) at her home in
Bayswater
Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...
. Florence was a
mystic who believed herself to be a
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
whom the voices she heard addressed as "Mary": She compared herself to
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
,
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
and The
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
, but it should be said that she was later, for a short period, committed to the care of the
Holloway Sanatorium
Holloway Sanatorium was an institution for the treatment of those suffering temporary mental illness, situated on of aesthetically landscaped grounds near Virginia Water, Surrey, England, about south-west of Charing Cross. Its largest buildin ...
in
Virginia Water
Virginia Water is a commuter village in the Borough of Runnymede in northern Surrey, England. It is home to the Wentworth Estate and the Wentworth Club. The area has much woodland and occupies a large minority of the Runnymede district. Its nam ...
,
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. Florence's daughter was Edith Cunningham, then 18, whom Amy had met at
St Paul's Girls' School
St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England.
History
St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...
. Edith was attracted to Amy because of her "poetic nature", and it was for this reason that Edith introduced her to her mother, thinking that Amy would be interested in her newly received
enlightenment.
Clarke was enamoured of the spirituality in the poems of Florence, and wrote to Florence from Newnham College saying that she was inspired and wanted to come and stay with her. This announcement was a surprise, but Cunningham did not refuse her because she was a friend of her daughter. Clarke stayed for 7 weeks, and during that time she would speak to Cunningham while in a state of inspiration for one or two hours at a time, only in the presence of her husband and daughter. Clarke related that miracles happened which were also witnessed by her family during her sojourn in order to try to demonstrate that she was under the control of higher powers. Clarke left as suddenly as she came, in an agreeable way: She wrote to Florence on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
, 1917, addressing her as "My dear Mother."
Career
That year, Clarke wrote a mystical poem "Vision of Him" which the same year was published in the ''Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse''.
After reading
classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
at
Newnham College
Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...
she returned in 1924 to teach as senior classical mistress, becoming successively head of classics, head of upper college, and director of university entrants. She was away from 1939 to 1947, and she returned as house mistress of Cheltenham's St. Hilda’s House until 1948. In 1950 she wrote on mystical religious philosophy, ''The Universal Character of Christianity''.
She finally
retired
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
from school administrative work in 1953.
[Archivist, The Cheltenham Ladies' College] Clarke published a scholarly edition of a commentary on Claudian's ''De Raptu Proserpine'' by Geoffrey of Vitry, and wrote two histories of the
Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...
and a history of
Truro High School for Girls
Truro High School for Girls is an independent day and boarding school for girls in Truro, Cornwall. The school consists of a girls-only prep school, senior school and sixth form. It is a member of the Girls' Schools Association.
History
The sc ...
.
Works
*''The Universal Character of Christianity''. London: Faber and Faber, 1950
*''A History of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, 1853-1953.'' London: Faber and Faber, 1953
*''The Commentary of Geoffrey of Vitry on Claudian'' De raptu Proserpinae: Transcribed and edited by A.K. Clarke and P.M.Giles, with an introduction and notes by A.K. Clarke (Leiden, Köln: E. J. Brill, 1973)
*''A History of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, 1853-1979.'' Suffolk: John Catt, 1979
*''The Story of Truro High School, the Benson Foundation: with a memoir of its first headmistress Amy Key''. 1980
Death
Clarke died at the age of 87 in 1980. She was living at the time in St. Ninian's, Victoria Street,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
[
]
References
External links
"Vision of Him"
by Amy K. Clarke
More about Nicholson, D. H. S. and Lee, A. H. E., eds., "The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Amy
1892 births
1980 deaths
Schoolteachers from Gloucestershire
English women poets
People educated at St Paul's Girls' School
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
Academics of the University of Cambridge
20th-century English poets
20th-century English women writers