Background
Clarke was from an army family and was born in Ascot.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Clarke was from an army family and was born in Ascot.
Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
He went to Temple Grove School and Haileybury, followed by the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. At the age of twenty he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. He served in India and China for seven years in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps before returning to Britain.
He transferred into the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in 1933.
During the Second World War Clarke served in Norway in 1940 where he was mentioned in dispatches. 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.
After the war, Clarke was a Liberal Party candidate in Pudsey and Otley at the 1945 general election. He then returned to the Army.
Clarke commanded the Royal Army Ordnance Corps 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 Member of Parliament for Portsmouth West by the slim majority of 945 votes. In Parliament Clarke was an advocate of strong defence, and joined the "Suez group" of Conservative MPs who wanted strong confrontation of the Egyptian government over the Suez canal, 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 for treason when the Ministry of Defence revealed that they had visited British prisoners of war in of Korea to try to persuade them to defect.
As a right-winger, Clarke became increasingly vocal in attacking the Labour Party, and especially its left wing. Having his own majority reduced to 497 votes in 1964, it was not a surprise that Clarke lost his seat in the 1966 general election.
When the result was announced (televised live on ITN"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, but made only a tiny reduction in the Labour majority.
39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament. 41st United Kingdom Parliament.
42nd United Kingdom Parliament.
43rd United Kingdom Parliament]
He was a member of the Army"s Rugby team and also boxed as a heavyweight for the Army.