Terence Joseph Clark was educated at Parmiter"s School. He did National Service nominally in the Royal Air Force, actually learning Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists and at the School of Slavonic Studies at Cambridge University and graduated as a Russian interpreter and pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
He then joined the Foreign Service (now the Diplomatic Service), volunteered to learn Arabic and was sent first to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and then to the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies in Lebanon. He then served at Bahrain, Amman, Casablanca, Dubai, Belgrade, Muscat and Bonn. He returned to Belgrade with the rank of counsellor 1979-1982, with a break as chargé d"affaires at Tripoli February–March 1981 while the ambassador, Michael Edes, was on leave.
Clark was deputy leader of the United Kingdom delegation to the Conference on Security and Company-operation in Europe (predecessor of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) 1982-1983, head of the Information Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1983-1985, ambassador to Iraq 1985-1989 during the Iran–Iraq War, and back to Muscat as ambassador to Oman 1990-1994 including the 1991 Gulf War.
Clark left the Diplomatic Service in 1994 and was a consultant to the international business development company MEC International 1995–2008 and chairman of the Anglo-Omani Society 1995–2004. He has also been a consultant for the security company mi2g.
He was director of the International Crisis Group"s Bosnia Project in Sarajevo in 1996.
