Sir John "Jack" Stewart-Clark, 3rd Baronet (born 17 September 1929) is a British businessman and former

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP). He represented the

Conservative and Unionist Party The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the Two-party system, two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. ...

in the European Parliament from 1979 until 1999.

Early life

John Stewart-Clark was born in Queensferry, Scotland. Stewart-Clark is the son of Sir Stewart Stewart-Clark, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Jane. Stewart-Clark was educated at

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

. He also attended

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, followed by the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, after his National Service, during which he had been commissioned into the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

in 1948, serving in North Africa. He was appointed in 1958 to the

Royal Company of Archers The Royal Company of Archers, The King's Bodyguard for Scotland is a ceremonial unit that serves as the Sovereign's bodyguard in Scotland—a role it has performed since 1822 during the reign of King George IV when the company provided a perso ...

, the Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland. From 1953 to 1969, Stewart-Clark worked with the family firm of J. & P. Coats Ltd in Uruguay, Canada, Spain, Holland, Portugal and Pakistan. In 1969, he joined

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, and he was Managing Director of Philips Electrical Ltd from 1970 to 1975, and of

Pye Ltd. Pye Ltd was an electronics company founded in 1896 in Cambridge, England, as a manufacturer of scientific instruments. The company merged with EKCO in 1960. Philips of the Netherlands acquired a majority shareholding in 1967, and later gained f ...

from 1975 to 1979. From 1979, he served as a non-executive director of several firms, including A.T. Kearney and

TSB Scotland A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

Political career

Stewart-Clark stood in the General Election of 1959 as Unionist candidate for Aberdeen North, coming second to

Hector Hughes Hector Samuel James Hughes (14 August 1887 – 23 June 1970) was a Scottish Labour Party politician. In his university years in University College Dublin he was a member of the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish League, which successfull ...

. In the first direct elections to the European Parliament, in 1979, Stewart-Clark successfully stood in Sussex East, holding the seat until it was abolished in 1994. He continued as an MEP, sitting for the successor East Sussex and Kent South constituency until 1999. Within the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, Stewart-Clark represented the

, which was aligned with the

European Democrat Group The European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance (EC/DA) is a conservative group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was founded as the Group of Independent Representatives in 1970 by British and Scandinavian members o ...

until 1992, after which Stewart-Clark sat with the

Group of the European People's Party The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...

. Although sitting for an English constituency, he also acted as a representative of the

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...

, who had no MEPs. He served as a

Vice-President of the European Parliament There are fourteen vice-presidents of the European Parliament who sit in for the president in presiding over the plenary of the European Parliament. Role Vice-presidents are members of the Bureau and chair the plenary when the president is not i ...

from 1992 to 1997. He took part in several parliamentary delegations and chaired a number of initiatives, with a particular interest in the prevention of drug abuse, and subsequently became a trustee of the substance abuse group

Mentor Foundation Mentor International (Mentor Foundation) is an international youth development NGO working in the field of substance use disorder prevention. It was founded in 1994 by Queen Silvia of Sweden in collaboration with the World Health Organisation. ...

. Stewart-Clark said in 2016 that he was in favour of continued UK membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Sir Jack said "We absolutely have to stay...It would be dreadful if we didn’t. It’s a plunge into the unknown." Following the

2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

of 2016, Stewart-Clark and the former

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 ...

proposed that Parliament should block the leave result.

Personal life

In 1958, Stewart-Clark married Jonkvrouwe Lydia Loudon. Loudon is the niece of Jonkheer John Hugo Loudon; the great-niece of Jonkheer John Loudon, the Dutch Foreign Minister during World War One; and the great granddaughter of Jonkheer

James Loudon James Loudon (May 24, 1841 – December 29, 1916) was a Canadian professor of mathematics and physics and President of the University of Toronto from 1892 to 1906. He was the first Canadian-born professor at the University of Toronto. Biog ...

, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1872 to 1875. The couple have five children.

Post-political career

In 1995, Sir Jack inherited

Dundas Castle Dundas Castle is a 15th-century castle, with substantial 19th-century additions by William Burn, in the Dalmeny parish of West Lothian, Scotland. The home of the Dundas family since the Middle Ages, it was sold in the late 19th century and is cur ...

from his mother and began a programme of restoration. The castle, built in 1818 adjacent to a 15th-century tower house, had been bought by Stewart-Clark's great-grandfather, the Paisley thread manufacturer Stewart Clark, in 1899. Stewart-Clark and his wife, Lydia, now live in one wing, with the rest of the house rented out for weddings and other events. Stewart-Clark is involved with the charity Passion Trust. In 2016, Stewart-Clark gained approval from the Vatican to take a Passion Play, dramatising the last days of Christ, to the Opera Jail in Milan, Italy. Stewart-Clark has said: " risonerscan become redeemed in prison, even if you’re never getting out". It was reported that Archbishop Leo Cushley was supportive of this project.

References

External links

Dundas Castle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart-Clark, Jack 1929 births Living people People educated at Eton College Conservative Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1979–1984 MEPs for England 1984–1989 MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Members of the Royal Company of Archers