Background
John Stewart-Clark was born in Dalmeny, Scotland. Stewart-Clark is the son of Sir Stewart Stewart-Clark, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Jane.
Member of the European Parliament politician
John Stewart-Clark was born in Dalmeny, Scotland. Stewart-Clark is the son of Sir Stewart Stewart-Clark, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Jane.
Stewart-Clark was educated at Eton. He also attended Balliol College, Oxford followed by the Harvard Business School.
He represented the Conservative and Unionist Party in the European Parliament from 1979 until 1999. Sir Jack is the owner of Dundas Castle in West Lothian, Scotland. He was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1948, serving in North Africa.
He was appointed to the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland, in 1958. 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, and was Managing Director of Philips Electrical Ltd from 1970 to 1975, and of Pye Ltd. from 1975 to 1979.
From 1979 he served as a non-executive director of several firms including A.T. Kearney and TSB Scotland. Stewart-Clark stood in the General Election of 1959 as Unionist candidate for Aberdeen North, coming second to Hector Hughes. 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. Although sitting for an English constituency, he also acted as a representative of the Scottish Conservatives, who had no MEPs. He served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament 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. In 1995 they inherited Dundas Castle from Sir Jack's mother, and began a programme of restoration. The castle, built in 1818 adjacent to a 15th-century tower house, had been bought by Sir Jack's great-grandfather, Paisley thread manufacturer Stewart Clark, in 1899.
Sir Jack and Lydia now live in one wing, with the rest of the house rented out for weddings and other events.
Within the European Parliament, Stewart-Clark represented the Conservative and Unionist Party, which was aligned with the European Democrat Group until 1992, after which Stewart-Clark sat with the Group of the European People's Party.
