Sir Thomas Basil Clarke (12 August 1879 – 12 December 1947) was an English war correspondent during the First World War and is regarded as the UK's first public relations professional.
Early life
Born in Altrincham, the son of a chemist, Clarke went to Manchester Grammar School and then as a young man, he played for Manchester Rugby Club, despite the handicap of having only one eye, the result of an accident in infancy.
Originally, he intended to make a music career.Alan Clarke. "The Life & Times of Sir Basil Clarke – PR Pioneer". '' Public Relations''. 1969. Vol. 22 (2) pp. 8–13. and he started a long-distance degree in Classics and Music at Oxford University but dropped out without completing any exams. After a career in banking, he spent most of 1903 travelling Germany, where he taught English, boxing and swimming and played the piano in an orchestra.
Journalism
His entry into journalism apparently came after a chance encounter in a hotel, where he joined in with some strangers as the fourth voice in a
Gilbert & Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pina ...
quartet and was invited to write an article on musical appreciation for the ''Evening Gazette'' in Manchester. He then worked for six months as a "volunteer sub-editor" for the ''Manchester Courier'' before joining the ''
Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' as a sub-editor.
He worked as a sub-editor between 1904 and 1907 before its editor,
C.P. Scott
Charles Prestwich Scott (26 October 1846 – 1 January 1932), usually cited as C. P. Scott, was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset, he was the editor of the ''Manchester Guardian'' (now ''the Guardian'') ...
, appointed him as a reporter in 1907. While he covered general news, he specialised in aviation and was an eyewitness to the death of Charles Rolls, the Rolls-Royce founder who was the first Briton to die in an air crash. It was his articles on aviation that drew him to the attention of Lord Northcliffe and in 1910 he was persuaded to join the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''. There, he was still based in Manchester and covered stories such as the
Hawes Junction
Garsdale is a railway station in Cumbria, England (historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire), on the Settle and Carlisle Line, which runs between and via . The station, situated south-east of Carlisle, serves the village of Garsdale and ...
rail disaster and played a role in the ''Daily Mails campaign for improving the nutritional content of bread. Then in 1914 he was sent on his first foreign assignment, travelling to Canada undercover as a migrant worker to find out the life that awaited the hundreds of thousands of people then emigrating to Canada.
First World War
At the outbreak of war, he was called down to London to represent the ''Daily Mail'' at the Press Bureau in London. In October 1914 he was ordered to try to get to Ostend before it was taken by the German Army. When he discovered that he was too late, he traveled to Europe anyway and managed to get to
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Ypres following the German destruction of it in November 1914.
He was forced to return to England in January 1915, the ''Daily Mail'' sent him on a tour of neutral countries to try to uncover their intentions. His time in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania did not yield any very useful information, though while there he did send back some vivid reports of fighting between the Austrian and Russian forces and on one occasion had to escape from
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi ( uk, Чернівці́}, ; ro, Cernăuți, ; see also other names) is a city in the historical region of Bukovina, which is now divided along the borders of Romania and Ukraine, including this city, which is situated on the upp ...
in the middle of the night when he woke to find it had been taken by Russian forces as he had slept.
He returned home to spend the rest of 1915 reporting on the impact of the war at home, including an article about the role of women in munitions factories, before causing a global scandal in January 1916 by accusing the Government of failing to enforce the
blockade of Germany
The Blockade of Germany, or the Blockade of Europe, occurred from 1914 to 1919. The prolonged naval blockade was conducted by the Allies of World War I, Allies during and after World War I in an effort to restrict the maritime supply of goods t ...
. His criticism of the Government, which was covered by newspapers around the world, is seen by some as one of the reasons for the establishment of a Ministry of Blockade in February 1916.
He then reported on the
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the a ...
- he was the first English journalist to get independent reports out of Dublin - before leaving the ''Daily Mail'' after an argument with its news editor, Walter G Fish. He spent the last few months of 1916 as an accredited reporter at the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...
, before publishing a memoir of his war experiences, which he called ''
My Round of the War
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Market ...
'', at the start of 1918.
Public relations
At the end of 1917, he became director of special intelligence at the
Ministry of Reconstruction
The Ministry of Reconstruction was a department of the United Kingdom government which existed after both World War I and World War II in order to provide for the needs of the population in the post war years.
World War I
The Ministry of Recons ...
after being recruited on behalf of
Christopher Addison
Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison, (19 June 1869 – 11 December 1951), was a British medical doctor and politician. A member of the Liberal and Labour parties, he served as Minister of Munitions during the First World War and was late ...
, who had an interest in propaganda. When Addison left to become president of the Local Government Board, Clarke followed him in 1919 and then joined the
Ministry of Health Ministry of Health may refer to:
Note: Italics indicate now-defunct ministries.
* Ministry of Health (Argentina)
* Ministry of Health (Armenia)
* Australia:
** Ministry of Health (New South Wales)
* Ministry of Health (The Bahamas)
* Ministry of ...
when it was founded, with Addison as the Minister of Health, in 1919. After two months he left to become editor of the ''Sheffield Independent'' before rejoining the Ministry of Health six months later, in March 1920. he was then seconded to Dublin Castle in August 1920 to lead the British propaganda (Official known as the Department of Publicity/Public Information) effort during the
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
.
His time in Dublin was controversial. The official newspaper of the government of the Irish Republic, the ''
Irish Bulletin
The ''Irish Bulletin'' was the official gazette of the government of the Irish Republic. It was produced by the Department of Propaganda during the Irish War of Independence. and its offices were originally located at No. 6 Harcourt Street, Dubl ...
'', accused Clarke of inventing stories and more recently historians have accused him of putting out false information to discredit Sinn Féin and the IRA. But a 2013 biography of Clarke has suggested that while some of the statements issued by his office were incorrect, there is no strong evidence this was done deliberately. Clarke worked to counter the negative press coverage associated with two high profile deaths in Ireland: the death on hunger strike by the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney (25 October 1920) and the execution of 18 year old Kevin Barry (1 November 1920). By mid-November 1920, the Irish Bulletin was publishing information which showed that Clarkes "official" narrative of Irish affairs was highly suspect. Clarkes Department of Publicity/Public Information had the difficult task of writing the British response to the Bloody Sunday retaliatory massacre in November 1920.
Also in Ireland, Clarke pioneered an approach to public relations he called "propaganda by news", the practice of influencing the news agenda through the selection of which news to release. The theory of propaganda by news is that it is facts that will influence public opinion and so these should be presented in as plain language as possible, rather than trying to add negative adjectives to it.
Following the Irish War of Independence, Clarke returned to the Ministry of Health and while there was knighted in 1923 for his services in Ireland. But the same year he was made redundant as part of the
Geddes Axe
The Geddes Axe was the drive for public economy and retrenchment in UK government expenditure recommended in the 1920s by a Committee on National Expenditure chaired by Sir Eric Geddes and with Lord Inchcape, Lord Faringdon, Sir Joseph Maclay an ...
. In 1924 he established Editorial Services Ltd, now generally seen as the first UK public relations agency, and by the end of the 1920s he was running a significant operation with 60 staffers. Its clients included
Heinz
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...
,
Lyons
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
and the National Union of Teachers. While running Editorial Services Ltd, he developed the world's first public relations code of conduct and he championed ethics in public relations.
Personal life
Clarke married Alice in 1904 and they had seven children together. He was a member of various clubs and societies, including President of the Manchester Press Club and he was awarded the
Order of the Dannebrog
The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known a ...
for his membership of the Anglo-Danish Society. He also had various business investments, including Whitehall Films, but these investments were invariably failures.
While well-liked, he displayed a violent temper throughout his adult life. His job teaching English in Germany in 1903 ended following a fight with his employer, while in 1930 he was involved in two high-profile court cases after violent incidents. In one of them he was accused of attacking a former colleague at Whitehall Films with an oar while he was out boating on the River Thames with his wife.
Retirement and death
Clarke had a stroke in 1935 and spent the rest of his life in ill-health. He died in 1947.
History of public relations
Most textbooks date the establishment of the "Publicity Bureau" in 1900 as the start of the modern public relations (PR) profession. Of course, there were many early forms of public influence and communications management in history. Basil Clarke ...