Henry Clarke:FROM 1959 until 1970, Henry Clark, who has died in England at the age of 82, represented Antrim North in the House of Commons at Westminster, boasting one of the largest majorities in the whole of the United Kingdom.
His narrow defeat by Protestant Unionist Ian Paisley in the 1970 general election was a landmark in the displacement of the landed gentry in the leadership of unionism by more populist and more overtly sectarian leaders. Ironically, it was assisted by Catholic voters who had been cultivated more assiduously by Paisley than by the tolerant and easy-going Clark.
It brought an end at an early age to a promising political career.
Henry Maitland Clark was born on April 11th, 1929, into one of the great linen families of Ulster. His father Harry was head of the family firm at Upperlands, Co Derry; his mother Sybil Stuart belonged to the Antrim gentry family – Francis Stuart, the writer, was a cousin.
Henry followed his father to Shrewsbury school before going to Trinity College Dublin where he studied economics, submitting in his final year a dissertation on the Ulster linen industry. He was also captain of a boat club eight that came close to victory at Henley.
As a younger son there was no room for him in the family business. He spent a year in Trinity Hall Cambridge and joined the British colonial office at an annual salary of £550, serving as a district officer in Tanganyika (now Tanzania).
In 1959 Clark seized the chance to return to his beloved Ireland when selected to contest the Antrim seat at Westminster, edging out the eminent London QC and former Irish rugby international John Megaw. Clark increased the unionist majority over that achieved by his predecessor Phelim O’Neill, polling 95 per cent of the votes against a Sinn Féin opponent.
Northern Ireland was then little discussed at Westminster, and Clark’s main contribution was on Africa. He was critical that funds Britain could ill afford were financing bloated bureaucracies in newly independent nations. While supporting the imposition of sanctions against Rhodesia after its declaration of independence in 1966, he opposed their extended continuance thereafter. But it was his opposition to all-figure telephone numbers at home that caused him to be described by a Labour member as the voice of reactionary conservatism.
An affable, comfortably built man, Clark enjoyed social life as an eligible bachelor. When the House of Commons was in recess he was a regular presence at social events all over Ireland. But neither in Dublin nor through friendly contacts at the Council of Europe did he acquire a significant connection with the political or official classes in the Republic.
He was, however, sufficiently well informed by his acquaintances in the Republic to complain in the House of Commons that the increased subsidy paid on beef from the Republic was not being passed on by meat factories to farmers. Admirably loyal to his old university, he pressed for full recognition in Britain of Trinity’s diploma in education.
Embarrassed by the exclusion of Catholics of impeccable loyalty from public office, Clark supported the more inclusive approach of then Northern Ireland prime minister Terence O’Neill. A good public speaker, he lent valuable support when O’Neill was almost unseated in the Bannside constituency by Paisley at the 1969 Stormont general election.
In November 1969, when supporting in parliament the setting up of the Ulster Defence Regiment to replace the B Specials, he criticised the failure of the Irish government to apprehend terrorists.
It was a cruel blow in 1970 to lose a seat that in the 1960s must have seemed to be his for life.
In 1972 he married Penelope Tindal, a devout Catholic with strong Irish connections. They settled in Wiltshire, and in 1977 he found congenial employment with the Council for Small Industries.
He kept up his interest in rowing as a coach and a member of the Leander club at Henley.
He had a very happy marriage that he freely said more than made up for the disappointments of his career. Sadly, it was cut short by the premature death of his wife in 1994 at the age of 52.
He is survived by two daughters, Christabel and Camilla, and one son, Jamie.
Henry Clark: born April 11th, 1929; died March 24th, 2012