Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/409

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Clark
401
Clark

in the same year published a ‘Method for the Harmonium.’ During the next few years he filled the post of organist at various London churches, and in 1865 he founded the London Organ School, where especial attention was paid to organ-playing. Shortly afterwards he became organist, scholar, and exhibitioner of Exeter College, Oxford, where he took the degree of Mus. Bac. in 1807. In the same year he was appointed head-master of St. Michael’s grammar school, Brighton. In 1868 he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Chichester, and in 1869 priest. During these years he was also curate of St. Michael’s, Lewes. In 1869 he left England, and went to Leipzig, where he studied under Reinecke, Richter, &c., for two terms, besides taking the duty of the English chapel. In 1870 he went to Stuttgart, where he was for some time assistant chaplain, and studied music under Lebert, Kriiger, and Pruckner. In 1873 he returned to London, but in the following year he was chaplain at Amsterdam. In 1875 he resumed his connection with the London Organ School. In 1878 he was the English official representative organist at the Paris Exhibition, where he was awarded a gold medal. In the following year he was for a time chaplain at Paris, but his connection with the or n school was resumed once more, and he died at that institution 5 July 1883. Clark was a voluminous writer of slight pieces for the organ, harmonium, and piano; his talents were considerable, but as a musician he lacked profundity, and his compositions courted popularity with the uneducated majority rather than the esteem of the educated few. He was a brilliant extempore player, and his memory was remarkable.

[Private sources; Crockford’s Clerical Directory for 1883; Musical Standard, xxv. 19; Musical Record for 1883; Times, 7 July 1883.]

W. B. S.


CLARK, GEORGE AITKEN (1823–1873), manufacturer and philanthropist, was the son of John Clark, thread manufacturer, Paisley, where he was born on 9 Aug. 1823. He was educated at the Paisley grammar school, and while still a lad was in 1840 sent across the Atlantic to enter the firm of Kerr & Co. at Hamilton, Ontario. On reaching manhood he returned to Paisley, and entered into partnership with Messrs. Robert and John Ronald, shawlmakers, under the name of Ronald & Clark. In 1851 he relinquished the partnership to enter into company with his brother-in-law, Mr. Robert Kerr, as a thread manufacturer. With a view to extend the business he went in 1856 to the United States, and, finding that they were much hampered by the high protective duties, the firm in 1864 resolved to establish a branch factory at Newark, New Jersey. The enterprise met with great success, and Clark's O.N.T. spool cotton soon became a widely recognised American manufacture. In 1866 the firm amalgamated with the original firm of Clark under the name of Clark & Co., with an anchor as their trade-mark. Clark died at Newark on 13 Feb. 1873. By his will he left 20,000l. to found four scholarships of 300l. a year each, tenable for three years, at Glasgow University, and 20,000l. to build a town hall in Paisley. The firm of Clark & Co. subscribed 40,000l. additional for the latter purpose, and the building styled the ‘George A. Clark Town Hall’ was opened in 1882.

[Biographical notices of the Clark family added to Notice of the Inauguration of the George A. Clark Town Hall. Paisley; Irving’s Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen; Glasgow University Calendar.]

T. F. H.

CLARK, JAMES, M.D. (d. 1819), physician, practised for many years in Dominica, and had the honour of being appointed a member of his majesty’s council in that island. He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He died in Hatton Garden, London, on Jan. 1819 (Gent. Mag. vol. lxxxix. pt. i. p. 184). As the result of twenty-five years’ practice in the West Indies, Clark published ‘A Treatise on the Yellow Fever as it appeared in the Island of Dominica in the years 1793-4-5-6. To which are added Observations on . . . other West India Diseases; also, the Chemical Analysis and Medical Properties of the Hot Mineral Waters in the same Island,’ 8vo, London, 1797. He also wrote largely in the medical and scientific serials of the day, and was a member of various learned bodies, including the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Society of Arts.

[Biog. Dict. of Living Authors (1816); Reuss’s Alphabetical Register of Living Authors; Callisen’s Medicinisches Schriftsteller-Lexicon.]

G. G.


CLARK, Sir JAMES (1788–1870), physician, was born at Cullen, Banffshire, 14 Dec. 1788. After education at the parish school, he went to the university of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A., and returning to his native county entered the office of a writer to the signet. Law did not suit him, and he soon determined to make medicine his profession. In 1809 he became a member of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and at once entered the navy as assistant-surgeon. His first ship was wrecked on the coast of New Jersey, and when he was promoted and appointed to another ship she also was