Alan Clark 413961 225972766 2008-07-16T07:38:34Z 217.41.53.133 {{otherpeople4|the British politician|other people with a similar name|Allan Clarke}} {{Infobox_Politician | honorific-prefix = <small>[[The Right Honourable]]</small><br> | name = Alan Clark | image= Alan Clark.jpg | birth_date = [[13 April]] [[1928]] | birth_place = | residence = [[Saltwood Castle]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1999|9|5|1928|4|28}} | death_place = Saltwood Castle, Kent | constituency_MP= [[Plymouth Sutton (UK Parliament constituency)|Plymouth Sutton]] | term_start = [[28 February]] [[1974]] | term_end = [[9 April]] [[1992]] | predecessor = [[David Owen]] | successor = [[Gary Streeter]] | constituency_MP2= [[Kensington & Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington & Chelsea]] | term_start2 = [[1 May]] [[1997]] | term_end2 = [[5 September]] [[1999]] | predecessor2 = (new constituency) | successor2 = [[Michael Portillo]] | party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] | website = }} '''Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark''' ([[13 April]], [[1928]] &ndash; [[5 September]], [[1999]]) was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician, historian and diarist. He was also created a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Councillor]], and was thus styled ''[[The Right Honourable]] Alan Clark'', before which he held the courtesy title of ''[[The Honourable]]'' as the son of a peer. ==Early life== Alan Clark was the elder son of the renowned [[art historian]] [[Kenneth Clark]] (later Lord Clark of [[Saltwood Castle|Saltwood]]). He was educated at [[St Cyprian's School]], [[Eton College|Eton]] and [[Christ Church, Oxford]], where he read Modern History. He went on to read for the [[Barristers in England and Wales#Education and training|bar]], but after he was [[Call to the bar|called]], he did not practise and instead became a military historian. Clark's first book, ''The Donkeys'' (1961), was a [[Historical revisionism|revisionist]] history of British involvement in the [[Great War]], which was well received by the public but which greatly irritated the [[British Army|Army]]. The book covers Western Front operations during 1915, including the offensives at [[Battle of Neuve Chapelle|Neuve Chapelle]] and [[Battle of Loos|Loos]], and ending with the dismissal of [[Sir John French]] as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, and his replacement by [[Douglas Haig]]. The book's title is drawn from a quoted description of English soldiers from a purported conversation between two wartime German generals, Max Hoffmann and [[Erich Ludendorff]] - a description which has since passed into popular usage - that British troops were "[[lions led by donkeys]]". In more recent years this work has been condemned by some historians for being one-sided in his treatment of World War One generals. When challenged by the eminent military historian [[John Terraine]] he was unable to provide a source for his ''Donkeys and Lions'' quotation, which Clark attributed to the German General [[Max Hoffmann]], who in fact spent the war on the Eastern Front and is unlikely to have taken much interest in the operations of the British forces - some have claimed that the quotation actually refers to the French in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], or the Russians in the [[Russo-Japanese War]]. Nonetheless, the book was the inspiration for the popular [[pacifism|pacifist]] [[Musical theater|musical]] ''[[Oh! What a Lovely War]]'', though Clark himself was not pleased with the adaptation. Clark produced several more studies of the [[World War I|First]] and [[Second World War]]s, including ''Barbarossa'', a history of the Eastern Front in the Second World War, before becoming involved in politics. ==Career== Clark entered [[British House of Commons|Parliament]] as [[Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Plymouth Sutton (UK Parliament constituency)|Plymouth Sutton]] at the [[United Kingdom general election, February 1974|February 1974 general election]] and served in various junior ministerial posts at the departments of Employment, Trade and [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Defence]] during the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] governments of the 1980s. He was an outspoken maverick with strong views on [[animal rights]], [[British unionism]], [[Racism|race]], and [[Social class|class]]. The diaries reveal recurring worries about [[Japanese militarism]] but his real views are often not clear because he enjoyed making 'tongue in cheek' remarks to the discomfiture of those he believed to be fools, as in his sympathy for a British version of [[National Socialism]]<ref>1 '''Alan Clark Diaries: Into Power, Page 280, Phoenix Paperback 2000 Edition, December the 8th, 1981:''' ''Frank'' [Frank Johnson, sketch writer for ''The Times''] ''pretended he wanted to talk about the Tory Party, but he really prefers to talk about the Nazis, concerning whom he is curious, but not, of course, sympathetic. Yes, I told him, I was a Nazi, I really believed it to be the ideal system, and that it was a disaster for the Anglo-Saxon races and for the world that it was extinguished. He both gulped and grinned 'But surely, er, you mean ... (behaving like an unhappy interviewer in ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' after, e.g., Pamela Stephenson had said something frightfully shocking) ideally in terms of administrative and economic policy ... you cannot really, er ...' Oh yes, I told him, I was completely committed to the whole philosophy. The blood and violence was an essential ingredient of it's strength, the heroic tradition of cruelty every bit as powerful and a thousand times more ancient than the Judaeo-Christian ethic''.</ref>. It is evident however that he was a [[British nationalism|nationalist]] and a [[protectionist]]. Although he was personally liked by [[Margaret Thatcher]] - a leader for whom he had great admiration and an occasional passion - she never entrusted him with high office and he left Parliament in 1992 following her fall from power. His admission during the [[Matrix Churchill]] trial that he had been 'economical with the ''actualité''' in answer to parliamentary questions over export licences to Iraq caused the collapse of the trial and the establishment of the [[Scott Inquiry]] into [[Arms-for-Iraq]], which helped undermine [[John Major]]'s government. At the same time he was cited in a divorce case in [[South Africa]] in which it was revealed he had had affairs with Valerie Harkess, the wife of a South African judge, and her two daughters, Josephine and Alison. After sensationalist tabloid headlines, Clark's wife Jane remarked upon what Clark had called "the coven" with the catty line: 'Well, what do you expect when you sleep with below stairs types?', and referred to her husband as an: 'S, H, One, T'. When Clark was a junior minister under Thatcher, responsible for overseeing [[Arms trade|arms sales]] to foreign governments, he was interviewed by journalist [[John Pilger]] who asked him: JP ''"Did it bother you personally that you were causing such mayhem and human suffering (by supplying arms for [[Indonesia]]'s war in [[East Timor]])?"'' AC ''"No, not in the slightest, it never entered my head."'' JP ''"I ask the question because I read you are a [[vegetarian]] and are seriously concerned about the way animals are killed."'' AC ''"Yeah?"'' JP ''"Doesn’t that concern extend to humans?"'' AC ''"Curiously not."'' Clark published his political and personal [[Alan Clark Diaries|diaries]] in 1993 , which caused a minor scandal at the time with their candid descriptions of senior Conservative politicians such as [[Michael Heseltine]], [[Douglas Hurd]] and [[Kenneth Clarke]]. In particular, they embarrassed former chief whip [[Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling|Michael Jopling]], reported by Clark as having described the self-made Heseltine as being someone who "buys his own furniture" (as opposed to inheriting enough of it). The account of Thatcher's downfall in 1990 has been described, by some reviewers, as the most vivid that we have and is now accepted by most contemporary political historians to be the definitive account. Two subsequent volumes of his diaries have covered the earlier and later parts of Clark's parliamentary career. Following the election of 1992, Clark became bored with life outside politics and returned to Parliament as member for [[Kensington and Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington and Chelsea]] in the [[united Kingdom general election, 1997|election of 1997]]. Clark was alone in criticising [[NATO's campaign in the Balkans]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/341713.stm BBC News | UK Politics | Alan Clark: A clumsy war<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>3 '''Alan Clark Diaries: The Last Diaries, Page 389, Phoenix Paperback 2003 Edition, April the 4th, 1999:''''' I am hugely depressed about Kosovo: Those loathsome, verminous gypsies; and the poor brave Serbs.'' </ref> To date he is the only Member of Parliament to have been accused of being [[drunk]] at the [[dispatch box]]. In 1983 while at Employment he was making a reading of a bill in the Commons after a [[Wine tasting|wine-tasting dinner]] with his friend of many years standing, Christopher Selmes. The complexities of the bill were too unclear for him to answer questions, and the opposition MP, [[Clare Short]], stood up and, after acknowledging that MPs cannot formally accuse each other of being drunk in the House of Commons, accused him of being "incapable", a euphemism for 'drunk'. Although the Government benches were furious at the accusation, Clark later admitted in his diaries that the wine-tasting had affected him. ==Death== He died in 1999 of a [[brain tumor|brain tumour]]. The account of his slow death has also been lauded as being a moving and explicit description of what it is like to die, as written by a natural writer. It has been claimed by Father [[Michael Seed]] that Clark converted to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] just before his death, but his widow denied this. He is buried in the grounds of [[Saltwood Castle]]. After his death, the Kensington & Chelsea constituency was contested and won by [[Michael Portillo]]. ==Media== A BBC TV serialisation of his [[Alan Clark Diaries|Diaries]] in 2004 starring [[John Hurt]] re-ignited the controversy surrounding their original publication and once again brought his name into the UK press and media. An authorised biography of Mr. Clark, by Ion Trewin, is due for release in July 2008. ==Styles and Honours== * Mr Alan Clark (1928-1969) * The Hon. Alan Clark (1969-1974) * The Hon. Alan Clark MP (1974-1991) * The Rt. Hon. Alan Clark MP (1991-1992) * The Rt. Hon. Alan Clark (1992-1997) * The Rt. Hon. Alan Clark MP (1997-1999) == Books == * ''[[Alan Clark Diaries|Diaries]]'': Three volumes 1972-1999 ** Volume 1 ''Diaries: In Power 1983-1992'' (1993) ** Volume 2 ''Diaries: Into Politics 1972-1982'' (2000) ** Volume 3 ''Diaries: The Last Diaries 1993-1999'' (2002) * ''The Donkeys, A History of the British Expeditionary Force in 1915'' (1961) * ''The Fall Of Crete'' (1963) * ''Barbarossa, The Russo-German Conflict 1941-45'' (1965) * ''The Suicide of Empires'' (1971) * ''Aces High, The War in the Air Over the Western Front 1914-18'' (1973) * ''The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State 1922-1997'' (1998) * ''Backfire, A Passion for Cars and Motoring'' (2001) * ''Summer Season: A Novel'' * ''The Lion Heart: A tale of the war in Vietnam'' ==References== <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;"> <references/> </div> {{wikiquote}} == External links == * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3394037.stm BBC: The Alan Clark I knew] * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/alanclarkdiaries/ BBC Drama: The Alan Clark Diaries] *{{imdb title|0388573|The Alan Clark Diaries}} *[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,1441,563455,00.html Guardian obituary for Alan Clark] *[http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html Channel 4 biography of the Conservative Politician] ==Offices held== {{start box}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Plymouth Sutton (UK Parliament constituency)|Plymouth Sutton]] | years = [[United Kingdom general election, February 1974|Feb. 1974]]&ndash;[[United Kingdom general election, 1992|1992]] | before = [[David Owen|Dr David Owen]] | after = [[Gary Streeter]] }} {{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Kensington and Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington and Chelsea]] | years = [[United Kingdom general election, 1997|1997]]&ndash;[[Kensington and Chelsea by-election, 1999|1999]] | before = (new constituency) | after = [[Michael Portillo]] }} {{end box}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Alan}} [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:1999 deaths]] [[Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies]] [[Category:Conservative MPs (UK)]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:English vegetarians]] [[Category:English historians]] [[Category:Military historians]] [[Category:English diarists]] [[Category:People connected with Plymouth]] [[Category:Animal rights movement]] [[Category:UK MPs 1974]] [[Category:UK MPs 1974-1979]] [[Category:UK MPs 1979-1983]] [[Category:UK MPs 1983-1987]] [[Category:UK MPs 1987-1992]] [[Category:UK MPs 1997-2001]] [[Category:Old Etonians]] [[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]] [[Category:Brain cancer deaths]]