Brigadier Terence Hugh Clarke,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(17 February 1904 – 26 May 1992) was a British army officer and politician.

Army career

Clarke was from an army family and was born in Ascot. He went to Temple Grove School and Haileybury, followed by the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

. At the age of twenty he was commissioned into

the Gloucestershire Regiment The Gloucestershire Regiment, commonly referred to as the Glosters, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. It traced its origins to Colonel Gibson's Regiment of Foot, which was raised in 1694 and later became the ...

as a second lieutenant. He served in India and China for seven years in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps before returning to Britain. He was a member of the Army's rugby team and also boxed as a heavyweight for the Army. He transferred into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in 1933.

Wartime service

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Clarke served in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in 1940 where he was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

. Later he had a key role in planning the logistical support for the Allied campaign in North Africa (he won the

in 1943), and then the invasion in Normandy. Clarke landed in Normandy and followed the campaign up to Lüneberg Heath (Lündeberge Heide) where he made arrangements to accept the surrender of more than a million Germany soldiers to Montgomery on 4 May 1945.

Post-war activities

After the war, Clarke was a Liberal Party candidate in Pudsey and Otley at the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

. He then returned to the Army; Clarke commanded the RAOC Training Centre and then became deputy director of ordnance services for the Southern Command. In 1950 Clarke left the Army to go into industry as a director of public and private companies; he was almost immediately elected as

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

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 ...

for Portsmouth West by the slim majority of 945 votes.

Parliamentary career

In Parliament Clarke was an advocate of strong defence, and joined the "Suez group" of Conservative MPs who wanted strong confrontation of the

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

ian government over the

Suez canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

, and after the ceasefire in the Suez crisis of 1956 he abstained on a vote approving government policy. He called for prosecution of several

British Communists British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

when the Ministry of Defence revealed that they had visited British prisoners of war in Korea to try to persuade them to defect. Clarke was a strong opponent of Archbishop Makarios of

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, and in 1960 protested that Dr Hastings Banda, the British-educated dictator of Malawi, had "shouted at me and behaved in a way I have seen no English or African politician behave before" (Clarke wanted the

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation or CAF, was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the Self-governing colony, self-governing British colony of Southe ...

to continue).

Attitude to left-wing politics

As a right-winger, Clarke became increasingly vocal in attacking the Labour Party, and especially its left wing. When a left-wing rebellion against the defence estimates in 1961 turned out to be less than expected, he shouted "What a poor rebellion!" He was astonished that

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

had appointed a Minister for Disarmament in the Foreign Office in 1964, and was so strong an opponent of

Sydney Silverman Samuel Sydney Silverman (8 October 1895 – 9 February 1968) was a British Labour politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment. Early life Silverman was born in poverty to a migrant Jewish parents from Jassy, Romania. His father was a d ...

's Bill to abolish

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

that he said that Silverman and the three most recent Home Secretaries should themselves be hanged.

Loss of seat

Having had his majority reduced to 497 votes in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

, Clarke lost his seat in the 1966 general election. When the result was announced (televised live on

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

's election programme), Clarke shouted back at the assembled crowd "You're all bloody fools!" He attempted to regain his seat at the 1970 general election but despite the national swing to the Conservatives, he made only a tiny reduction in the Labour majority.

References

*''Who Was Who'' *M. Stenton and S. Lees, ''Who's Who of British MPs'' Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) *Obituary, ''The Times'', 27 May 1992

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Terence 1904 births 1992 deaths Gloucestershire Regiment officers Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers British Army personnel of World War II Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 Politics of Portsmouth People from Ascot, Berkshire Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates