Henry Maitland Clark (11 April 1929 – 24 March 2012) was a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

colonial administrator and politician.

Background

Relatives of

James Chichester-Clark James Dawson Chichester-Clark, Baron Moyola, PC, DL (12 February 1923 – 17 May 2002) was the penultimate Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and eighth leader of the Ulster Unionist Party between 1969 and March 1971. He was Member of the N ...

, Clark's family had been settled in

Upperlands Upperlands (Toner, Gregory: ''Place-Names of Northern Ireland''. Queen's University of Belfast, 1996, ) is a small village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is situated 3 miles north east of Maghera. It lies within the civil parish of M ...

in County Londonderry for generations, where they owned a substantial linen mill. Clark, the younger brother of sailor and writer Wallace Clark, was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

. He served with the Colonial Service on coming down from Cambridge and was appointed becoming a District Officer in

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

, where he later served as District Commissioner.

Parliament

In 1959 Clark resigned from the Colonial Service to enter Parliament as

Ulster Unionist The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...

MP for Antrim North. Throughout Clark's time in Parliament, the Ulster Unionists received the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

whip, though retaining an independent identity and Council, and Clark sat on the Government, and later Opposition, benches with Conservative MPs from Great Britain. Clark chaired the Conservative MPs' East Africa Committee in 1963-65 and was a part of the British Parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe and the

Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU; french: Union de l'Europe occidentale, UEO; german: Westeuropäische Union, WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 ...

from 1962 to 1965. Clark's background in the Colonial Service and his abiding interest in East Africa led to his appointment as an electoral observer. He led the British delegation observing the election in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

in 1965 and was a member of the Commonwealth delegation observing the

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

election in 1967.

Defeat

At the 1970 general election, Clark lost his seat to Rev Ian Paisley of the

Protestant Unionist Party The Protestant Unionist Party (PUP)Not to be confused with the Progressive Unionist Party. was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was the forerunner of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and emerge ...

. He became a wine merchant in 1972, giving up the business in 1976. From 1977 he was Assistant Controller of the Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas. He married Penelope (d 1994), daughter of Group Captain Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley and they had three children: Christabel (b 1973, m Dario Sbrocca), Camilla (b 1975, m Alasdair Spink) and Jamie (b 1979, m Kate Sinton). In later life he lived in

Tisbury, Wiltshire Tisbury is a large village and civil parish approximately west of Salisbury in the English county of Wiltshire. With a population at the 2011 census of 2,253 it is a centre for communities around the upper River Nadder and Vale of Wardour. The ...

, where he died on 24 March 2012."Deaths", ''The Times'', 31 March 2012, p. 98.

References

* Who's Who of British MPs, vol. IV, Harvester Press, 1981. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Henry Maitland 1929 births 2012 deaths People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge Ulster Unionist Party members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Antrim constituencies (since 1922) UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 Colonial Service officers Tanganyika (territory) people