Editing Alan Clark

{{Short description|British politician and author (1928–1999)}}
{{About|the British politician|other people with a similar name|Alan Clark (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = Alan Clark
| honorific-suffix =
| image = Alan Clark appearing on Opinions 21 February 1993.jpg
| imagesize = 225px
| caption = Clark appearing on ''[[Opinions (TV series)|Opinions]]'' in 1993
| office = [[Minister of State for Defence Procurement]]
| primeminister = {{plainlist|
*[[Margaret Thatcher]]
*[[John Major]]}}
| term_start = 25 July 1989
| term_end = 14 April 1992
| predecessor = [[David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne|The Lord Trefgarne]]
| successor = [[Jonathan Aitken]]
| office1 = [[Minister of State for Trade]]
| primeminister1 = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start1 = 24 January 1986
| term_end1 = 24 July 1989
| predecessor1 = [[Paul Channon]]
| successor1 = [[David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne|The Lord Trefgarne]]
| office2 = [[Department for Work and Pensions|Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment]]
| primeminister2 = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start2 = 13 June 1983
| term_end2 = 24 January 1986
| predecessor2 = [[Peter Morrison]]
| successor2 = [[Ian Lang]]
| office3 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Kensington & Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington and Chelsea]]
| term_start3 = 1 May 1997
| term_end3 = 5 September 1999
| predecessor3 = [[Boundary Commissions (United Kingdom)|Constituency Created]]
| successor3 = [[Michael Portillo]]
| office4 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Plymouth Sutton]]
| term_start4 = 28 February 1974
| term_end4 = 16 March 1992
| predecessor4 = [[David Owen]]
| successor4 = [[Gary Streeter]]
| party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| birth_name = Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark
| birth_date = 13 April 1928
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|9|5|1928|4|28|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Saltwood]], England
| spouse = {{marriage|(Caroline) Jane Beuttler|1958}}<ref name="Burke's Peerage 2003">Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 3, p. 3551</ref>
| children = 2
| parents = {{plainlist|
*[[Kenneth Clark]]
*Elizabeth Martin}}
| relatives = [[Colin Clark (filmmaker)|Colin Clark]] (brother)
| alma_mater = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
}}

'''Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark''' (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s governments at the Departments of [[Department of Employment|Employment]], [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Trade]] and [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Defence]]. He became a member of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] in 1991.

He was the author of several books of military history, including his controversial work ''The Donkeys'' (1961), which inspired the musical satire ''[[Oh, What a Lovely War!]]''

Clark became known for his flamboyance, wit, irreverence and keen support of [[animal rights]]. [[Norman Lamont]] called him "the most [[politically incorrect]], outspoken, iconoclastic and reckless politician of our times".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/440980.stm |title=Thatcher leads Clark tributes |date=7 September 1999 |work=BBC News |location=London |access-date=1 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923165235/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/440980.stm |archive-date=23 September 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> His three-volume ''Alan Clark Diaries'' contains a candid account of political life under Thatcher and a description of the weeks preceding his death, which he continued to write until he could no longer focus on the page.

== Early life ==
Alan Clark was born at 55 [[Lancaster Gate]], London, the elder son of art historian [[Kenneth Clark]] (later Lord Clark), who was of Scottish parentage, and his wife Elizabeth Winifred Clark (''née'' Martin), who was Irish.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Hq0jq3WHqGdhv2fMIGG8gQ&scan=1 |title=Index entry |access-date=3 April 2016 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828020859/https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Hq0jq3WHqGdhv2fMIGG8gQ&scan=1 |archive-date=28 August 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> His sister and brother, [[Twin#Fraternal (sororal/dizygotic) twins|fraternal twins]] Colette (known as Celly) and [[Colin Clark (filmmaker)|Colin]], were born in 1932. At the age of six he began as a day boy at Egerton House, a [[preparatory school (United Kingdom)|preparatory school]] in [[Marylebone]], and from there at the age of nine went on as a [[boarding school|boarder]] to [[St Cyprian's School]], [[Eastbourne]]. Clark was one of the seventy boys rescued when the school building was destroyed by fire in May 1939. He was relocated with the school to [[Midhurst]].

In September 1940, with the [[Luftwaffe]] threatening south-east England, the Clarks moved their son to a safer location at [[Cheltenham College]] Junior School. From there he went to [[Eton College|Eton]] in January 1942. In February 1946 while at Eton he joined the training regiment of the [[Household Cavalry]] based at [[Combermere Barracks]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]]. He transferred to the regiment's [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Territorial]] unit the same day, but was discharged in August when he had left Eton.<ref>Trewin pp. 16–61</ref> Later that year, he was called up for [[Conscription in the United Kingdom#After 1945|national service]] in the [[Royal Air Force]] Education Branch, but was exempted after citing his experience in the Household Cavalry while at Eton, which his biographer [[Ion Trewin]] described as "a bit like doing [[Combined Cadet Force#History|Officer Training Corps]]", but which Clark would later again embellish as prior military service in a CV for a possible parliamentary candidacy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-07-18 |title=Alan Clark, military expert, 'dodged National Service' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/alan-clark-military-expert-dodged-national-service-2029491.html |access-date=2024-12-13 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>

He then went to [[Christ Church, Oxford]], where he read Modern History under [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], obtaining a [[British undergraduate degree classification|third-class honours degree]]. As an undergraduate he was a member of the [[Bullingdon Club]], a private all-male dining club known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms. The club selects its members not only on the grounds of wealth and willingness to participate but also by means of education.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alleyne |first1=Rihard |title=Oxford hellraisers politely trash a pub |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1478131/Oxford-hellraisers-politely-trash-a-pub.html |website=.telegraph.co.uk |access-date=20 July 2023 |date=3 December 2004}}</ref> After Oxford he wrote articles for the motoring press before he went on to read for the [[Barristers in England and Wales#Education and training|bar]]. He was [[called to the bar]] in 1955 but did not practise law. Instead, he began privately studying military history with a view to professional writing on the topic.

==Military history==
Clark's first book, ''The Donkeys'' (1961), was a [[Historical revisionism|revisionist]] history of the [[British Expeditionary Force (World War I)|British Expeditionary Force]]'s (BEF) campaigns at the beginning of the [[First World War]]. The book covers [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] operations during 1915, including the offensives at [[Battle of Neuve Chapelle|Neuve Chapelle]], [[Aubers Ridge]] and [[Battle of Loos|Loos]], and ending with the enforced resignation of [[Sir John French]] as commander-in-chief of the BEF, and his replacement by [[Douglas Haig]]. Clark describes the battle scenes, and criticises the actions of several of the generals involved in the heavy loss of life that occurred. Much of the book is based on the political manoeuvres behind the scenes as commanders jostled for influence, and John French's difficulties dealing with his French allies and with [[Herbert Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]]. Haig's own diaries are used to demonstrate how Haig positioned himself to take over command. The publication sold well, and is still in print 50 years after its first print run, being regarded as an important work on the British experience of the World War.

The book's title was drawn from the expression "[[Lions led by donkeys]]" which has been widely used to compare British soldiers with their commanders. In 1921 [[Evelyn, Princess Blücher|Princess Evelyn Blücher]] published her memoirs, which attributed the phrase to OHL (the German GHQ) in 1918.<ref>{{cite book |author=Evelyn, Princess Blücher |title=An English Wife in Berlin |year=1921 |publisher=Constable |location=London |pages=211 |url=https://archive.org/stream/englishwifeinber00bluoft#page/211/mode/1up |access-date=26 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806110440/http://www.archive.org/stream/englishwifeinber00bluoft#page/211/mode/1up |archive-date=6 August 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Clark was unable to find the origin of the expression. He prefaced the book with a supposed dialogue between two generals and attributed the dialogue to the memoirs of German general [[Erich von Falkenhayn]]. Clark was equivocal about the source for the dialogue for many years, but in 2007, his friend Euan Graham recalled a conversation in the mid-1960s when Clark, on being challenged as to the dialogue's provenance, looked sheepish and said, "Well I invented it."<ref>Trewin 2009, pp. 182–189.</ref> This supposed invention emboldened critics of ''The Donkeys'' to condemn the work.

Clark's choice of subject was strongly influenced by [[Lord Lee of Fareham]], a family friend who had never forgotten what he saw as the shambles of the BEF. In developing his work, Clark became close friends with historian [[Basil Liddell Hart]], who acted as his mentor. Liddell Hart read the drafts and was concerned by Clark's "intermittent carelessness". He produced several lists of corrections, which were incorporated, and wrote "It is a fine piece of writing, and often brilliantly penetrating."<ref>Trewin p. 173.</ref>

Even before publication, Clark's work came under attack from supporters of Haig, including [[George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig|the field marshal's son]] and historians [[John Terraine]], [[Robert Blake, Baron Blake|Robert Blake]] and [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], former tutor to Clark, who was married to Haig's daughter.<ref>Trewin 2009, pp. 153–177.</ref> On publication, ''The Donkeys'' received very supportive comments from [[Lord Beaverbrook]], who recommended the work to [[Winston Churchill]], and ''[[The Times]]'' printed a positive review.<ref>Trewin 2009, pp. 176–189.</ref> However, John Terraine<ref>''The Sunday Telegraph'' (London). 16 July 1961</ref><!---INADEQUATE REFERENCE -- needs title of article---> and [[A. J. P. Taylor]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Dairies bring doom |first=A.J.P. |last=Taylor |newspaper=The Observer |location=London |date=23 July 1961 |page=19}}</ref> wrote damning reviews and historian [[Michael Howard (historian)|Michael Howard]] wrote "As history, it is worthless", criticising its "slovenly scholarship". Howard nonetheless commended its readability and noted that descriptions of battles and battlefields are "sometimes masterly".<ref>{{cite news |title=Review of 'The Donkeys' |first=Michael |last=Howard |newspaper=The Listener |publisher=BBC |location=London |date=3 August 1961}}</ref> [[Field Marshal Montgomery]] later told Clark it was "A Dreadful Tale: You have done a good job in exposing the total failure of the generalship".<ref>Trewin 2009, p. 178.</ref>

In more recent years, the work has been criticised by some historians for being one-sided in its treatment of World War One generals. [[Brian Bond]], in editing a 1991 collection of essays on First World War history, expressed the collective desire of the authors to move beyond "popular stereotypes of ''The Donkeys''" while also acknowledging that serious leadership mistakes were made and that the authors would do little to rehabilitate the reputations of, for instance, the senior commanders on [[The Somme]].<ref name=bond>{{cite book |editor=Brian Bond |editor-link=Brian Bond |title=The First World War and British Military History |year=1991 |publisher=[[Oxford Clarendon Press]] |pages=6–12 |quote=... despite the saturation coverage of the First World War in the 1960s, little was produced of lasting scholarly value because there was so little attempt to place the war in historical perspective; books such as ''The Donkeys'' and films such as ''Oh, What a Lovely War'' tell us as much about the spirit of the 1960s as about the period supposedly portrayed. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8_uPPrrHVqIC&pg=PA6 |isbn=978-0-19-822299-6 |access-date=26 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140615151221/http://books.google.com/books?id=8_uPPrrHVqIC&lpg=PP6&pg=PA6 |archive-date=15 June 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The historian Peter Simkins complained that it was frustratingly difficult to counter Clark's prevailing view.<ref>Simkins, Peter (8 December 1996). ''The Sunday Times'' (London).</ref><!---INADEQUATE REFERENCE -- needs title of article---> Professor [[Richard Holmes (military historian)|Richard Holmes]] made a similar complaint, writing that "Alan Clark's ''The Donkeys'', for all its verve and amusing narrative, added a streak of pure deception to the writings of the [[First World War]]. Its title is based on 'Lions led by Donkeys'. Sadly for historical accuracy, there is no evidence whatever for this; none. Not a jot or scintilla. The real problem is that such histories have sold well and continue to do so. They reinforce historical myth by delivering to the reader exactly what they expect to read".<ref>Holmes, Richard, ''Tommy'', pp. xxi–xxii.</ref> Clark's work was described as "contemptible" by [[Henry Paget, 7th Marquess of Anglesey]] who regarded Clark as the most arrogant and least respectable writer on the War, but the impartiality of this view may have been overshadowed by the fact that Anglesey's own history of the British Cavalry had been reviewed by Clark with the comments "cavalry are nearly always a disaster, a waste of space and resources."<ref>Trewin, p. 180.</ref> Graham Stewart, Clark's researcher for a later political history that he would write entitled ''The Tories'', noted: "Alan wasn't beyond quoting people selectively to make them look bad".<ref>Trewin p. 357.</ref>

Clark went on to publish several more works of military history through the 1960s, including ''Barbarossa'' in 1965 examining the [[Operation Barbarossa]] offensive of the [[Second World War]]; he also tried his hand at novel writing, but none of the subsequent books were as commercially successful or drew the same attention as ''The Donkeys'' had achieved, and he abandoned the path of military history in the mid-1970s to pursue a professional career in national politics.

== Political career ==

Clark's first foray into politics was on the issue of the [[Common Market]], which he opposed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Turner |first=Derek |date=2001-12-01 |title=Clark's Tale – Chronicles |url=https://chroniclesmagazine.org/reviews/clarks-tale/,%20https://chroniclesmagazine.org/reviews/clarks-tale/ |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=chroniclesmagazine.org |language=en-US}}</ref>  With those beliefs, he joined the [[Conservative Monday Club]] in 1968, and was soon chairman of its Wiltshire branch.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trewin |first=Ion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFVvSAaTANMC&dq=alan+clark+%22monday+club%22+wiltshire&pg=PT241 |title=Alan Clark: The Biography |date=2009-09-14 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-0-297-85782-2 |language=en}}</ref> In 1971 he was blacklisted by Conservative Party Central Office for being too right-wing, but after representations by him, and others, he was removed from the blacklist.<ref>Trewin, Ion, ''Alan Clark – The Biography'', London, 2009, {{ISBN|9780297850731}}-I, pps: 230 & 246-7.</ref>

He unsuccessfully sought the Conservative selection for [[Weston-super-Mare (UK Parliament constituency)|Weston super-Mare]] in 1970, missing out to [[Jerry Wiggin]].<ref>Clark, Alan Clark Diaries (2):In Power, p.271.</ref> He subsequently became MP for [[Plymouth Sutton]] at the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974]] general election with a majority of 8,104,<ref>Trewin, p.245.</ref> when [[Harold Wilson]] took over from [[Edward Heath]] as prime minister of a minority Labour government. At the General Election in October 1974, when Labour gained a small overall majority, Clark's vote fell by 1,192 votes, but he still had a comfortable majority with 5,188.<ref name="Trewin, p.250">Trewin, p.250.</ref> His first five years in parliament were spent on the Conservative opposition benches. He was still a member of the Monday Club in May 1975.<ref>Copping, Robert, ''The Monday Club – Crisis and After'', London, May 1975, p.25.</ref> It is unclear when he let his membership of the club lapse, but possibly it was upon becoming a government minister. He continued to address Club events until 1992.

During the subsequent Party leadership contest he was urged by [[Airey Neave]] to vote for Margaret Thatcher, but he is thought to have favoured [[Willie Whitelaw]].<ref name="Trewin, p.250"/> The following year came the free vote on the Common Market and Clark, praising [[Enoch Powell]]'s speech, voted against. The next day he told the socialist MP [[Dennis Skinner]] that "I'd rather live in a socialist Britain than one ruled by a lot of fucking foreigners."<ref>Trewin, p.250-1.</ref> Although he was personally liked by [[Margaret Thatcher]], for whom he had great admiration, and the columnist George Hutchinson (who, writing in ''The Times'', tipped him for inclusion in the Shadow Cabinet),<ref>Trewin, p.251.</ref> Clark was never promoted to the cabinet, remaining in mid-ranking ministerial positions during the 1980s.

=== First portfolios ===
Clark received his first ministerial posting as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the [[Department of Employment]] in 1983, where he was responsible for moving the approval of regulations relating to equal pay in the House of Commons. His speech in 1983 followed a [[Wine tasting|wine-tasting dinner]] with his friend of many years standing, Christopher Selmes. Irritated by what he regarded as a bureaucratically written civil-service speech, he galloped through the script, skipping over pages of text. The then-opposition MP [[Clare Short]] stood up on a [[point of order]] 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.<ref>{{cite hansard | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1983/jul/20/sex-discrimination#S6CV0046P0_19830720_HOC_437 | title=Sex Discrimination | house=[[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] | date=20 July 1983 | column_start=483 | column_end=484 | access-date=25 January 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701202451/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1983/jul/20/sex-discrimination#S6CV0046P0_19830720_HOC_437 | archive-date=1 July 2009 | url-status=live }}</ref> Although the government benches were furious at the accusation, Clark later admitted in his diaries that the wine-tasting had affected him. To date, he is the only Member of Parliament to have been accused in the House of Commons of being drunk at the [[despatch box]].

In 1986, Clark was promoted to [[Minister of State for Trade|Minister for Trade]] at the [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]]. It was during this time that he became involved with [[Arms-to-Iraq|the issue of export licences to Iraq]], the Matrix-Churchill affair. In 1989, he became Minister for Defence Procurement at the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html|title=Real Lives – Channel 4's Portrait Gallery|work=Channel 4|access-date=29 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502105003/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html|archive-date=2 May 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

When Clark was Minister for Trade, responsible for overseeing [[arms sales]] to foreign governments, he was interviewed by journalist [[John Pilger]] who asked him:<ref>Pilger, John, Documentary:''Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy'', 1994.</ref>
:JP "Did it bother you personally that this British equipment was causing such mayhem and human suffering (by supplying arms for [[Indonesia]]'s [[Indonesian invasion of East Timor|war]] in [[East Timor]])?"
:AC "No, not in the slightest, it never entered my head. You tell me that this was happening, I didn't hear about it or know about it."
:JP "Well, even if I hadn't told you it was happening, the fact that we supply highly effective equipment to a regime like that is not a consideration, as far as you're concerned. It's not a personal consideration. I ask the question because I read you are a vegetarian and you are quite seriously concerned about the way animals are killed."
:AC "Yeah."
:JP "Doesn't that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners, are killed?"
:AC "Curiously not. No."

=== Departure and return ===
Clark left Parliament in 1992 following Margaret Thatcher's fall from power. His admission during the [[Matrix Churchill]] trial that he had been "economical with the ''actualité''" in answer to parliamentary questions about what he knew with regard to arms export licences to Iraq, caused the collapse of the trial and the establishment of the [[Scott Inquiry]], which helped undermine [[John Major]]'s government.<ref>{{Cite news|title = The difference between lying and misleading|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34912959|access-date = 2015-12-05|last = Edmonds|first = David |work = BBC News|date = December 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180511065124/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34912959|archive-date = 11 May 2018|url-status = live}}</ref>

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 [[1997 United Kingdom general election|election of 1997]], becoming critical of [[1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|NATO's campaign in the Balkans]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/341713.stm | work=BBC News | title=Alan Clark: A clumsy war | date=13 May 1999 | access-date=23 April 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040509035142/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/341713.stm | archive-date=9 May 2004 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>3 ''Alan Clark Diaries: The Last Diaries'', Page 389, Phoenix Paperback 2003 Edition, 4 April 1999: "I am hugely depressed about Kosovo: Those loathsome, verminous gypsies; and the poor brave Serbs."</ref>

Clark held strong views on [[British unionism]], racial difference, social class, and was in support of animal rights, [[British nationalism|nationalist]] [[protectionism]] and [[Euroscepticism]]{{Citation needed|date=June 2013}}. He referred to [[Enoch Powell]] as "The Prophet". Clark once declared: "It is natural to be proud of your race and your country", and in a departmental meeting, allegedly referred to Africa as "[[Bongo Bongo Land]]".<ref>Financial Times 7 February 1985 "Tory minister faces row over race remark"</ref> When called to account, however, Clark denied the comment had any racist overtones, claiming it had simply been a reference to the president of [[Gabon]], [[Omar Bongo]].<ref>Clark, A. ''The Last Diaries: In and Out of the Wilderness'', Phoenix, 2003, p.219.</ref>

Clark argued that the media and the government failed to pick out the racism towards white people and ignored any racist attacks on white people. He also, however, described the National Front chairman, [[John Tyndall (politician)|John Tyndall]], as "a bit of a blockhead".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html|title=Channel 4 – The Real Alan Clark|work=Channel 4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705005854/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html|archive-date=5 July 2007}}</ref>

On his death in 1999, figures from all sides of politics paid tribute to Clark, though his critics remained.<ref name=":0"/><ref name="independent.co.uk">{{Cite web |date=2009-09-14 |title=Alan Clark was not 'wonderful'. He was sleazy and cruel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/dominic-lawson/alan-clark-was-not-wonderful-he-was-sleazy-and-cruel-1787343.html |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] spoke of Clark as "extraordinary, amusing, irreverent, but with real conviction and belief, and behind the headlines, kind and thoughtful."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1999-09-07 |title=Tributes from across the spectrum |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/sep/07/uk.politicalnews3 |access-date=2024-02-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> And the Liberal Democrat, [[Simon Hughes]], described him as "courageous, idiosyncratic, talented and principled.<ref name=":0" /> However, journalist [[Dominic Lawson]] criticised Clark as "sleazy, vindictive, greedy, callous and cruel", while [[Ion Trewin]] (subsequently his biographer) referred to Clark as "wonderful".<ref name="independent.co.uk"/>

Clark was a passionate supporter of [[animal rights]], joining activists in demonstrations at Dover against [[live export]],<ref name=Mcnaghten>{{cite book |last=Macnaghten |first=Phil |author2=Urry, John |title=Contested natures |publisher=Sage |location=London |year=1998 |edition=1 |isbn=978-0-7619-5312-8}}</ref> and outside the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] in support of [[Animal Liberation Front]] hunger-striker [[Barry Horne (activist)|Barry Horne]].<ref name=ClarkIII>Clark, Alan. ''The Last Diaries: 1993–1999''. Phoenix, p. 361.</ref>

== Diaries ==
Clark kept a regular [[diary]] from 1955 until August 1999 (during his second spell as a [[Member of Parliament]]) when he was incapacitated due to the onset of the [[brain tumour]] which was to be the cause of his death a month later. The last month of his life would be chronicled by his wife, Jane. The diaries covering the period 1983 to 1992 were published after he left the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]], deciding not to seek re-election to his [[Plymouth Sutton]] seat.  Published in 1993 and known simply as ''Diaries'' (although later subtitled ''In Power''), they have been recognised as a definitive account of the downfall of Prime Minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]. They caused a minor embarrassment at the time with their descriptions of senior Conservative politicians such as [[Michael Heseltine]], [[Douglas Hurd]], and [[Kenneth Clarke]]. He quoted [[Michael Jopling]] – referring to Heseltine, deputy PM at the time – as saying "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture" and judged it "Snobby, but cutting".<ref>Alan Clark ''Diaries: In Power 1983–1992'' (Wednesday 17 June 1987) 1993 Weidenfeld & Nicolson</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3042772/Lord-Heseltine-traces-his-roots-to-poverty-in-Wales.html |title=Lord Heseltine traces his roots to poverty in Wales |last=Gardham |first=Duncan |date=22 September 2008 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |access-date=2 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207123010/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3042772/Lord-Heseltine-traces-his-roots-to-poverty-in-Wales.html |archive-date=7 February 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Two subsequent volumes of his diaries cover the earlier and later parts of Clark's parliamentary career. 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, 8 December 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 its strength, the heroic tradition of cruelty every bit as powerful and a thousand times more ancient than the Judaeo-Christian ethic''.</ref>

[[Image:Alanclark.jpg|thumb|right|Cover page for ''Alan Clark Diaries'']]Before his death in 1999, Clark had started work on the [[prequel]] to the 1983–1992 ''Diaries'' to cover his entry in politics, from seeking a Conservative Association to adopt him as their Parliamentary Candidate in 1972 until the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]]. Published a year after his death, this volume was titled ''Diaries: Into Politics'' and covered 1972 to 1983.

The final volume, covering Clark's decision not to seek re-election at the [[1992 United Kingdom general election|1992 general election]], his regret at leaving the House of Commons and then his return to Parliament, was published in 2002 and included Clark's final days dying from a brain tumour.

Throughout his diaries Clark refers admiringly to [[Henry "Chips" Channon]] and his diaries. He also quotes [[Adolf Hitler]], to whom he refers as "Wolf".

The diaries include much reference to Clark's love of his chalet at [[Zermatt]], his Scottish estate at [[Eriboll]] and the architecture of and country around [[Saltwood Castle]], his home in Kent. Clark's fascination with [[classic cars]] is also evident, as is his enthusiasm for [[backgammon]].

The Diaries were serialised into six episodes of ''[[The Alan Clark Diaries]]'' by the [[BBC]] and shown in 2004 with [[John Hurt]] and [[Jenny Agutter]].

== Personal life ==
In 1958, Clark, aged 30, married 16-year-old (Caroline) Jane, daughter of [[Colonel]] Leslie Brindley Bream Beuttler [[Order of the British Empire#Current classes|OBE]] of the [[Duke of Wellington's Regiment]] and a descendant on her mother's side of the Scottish ornithologist [[William Robert Ogilvie-Grant]], grandson of the [[Francis Ogilvy-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield|6th Earl of Seafield]].<ref name="Burke's Peerage 2003"/><ref>''Alan Clark: The Biography'', [[Ion Trewin]], Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009</ref><ref>Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 146th edition, ed. Charles Kidd, David Williamson, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2000, p. 1494</ref> They were married for 41 years and had two sons:

* James Alasdair Kenneth Clark (born 1960, died 15 August 2019)
* Andrew McKenzie Clark (born 1962)

His elder son James (who lived in Eriboll, a Scottish estate) died of a brain tumour on 15 August 2019, aged 59.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/james-clark-obituary-smcjlcvdf|title=James Clark obituary|date=2019-08-26|work=[[The Times]]|access-date=2019-08-26|language=en|issn=0140-0460|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826111047/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/james-clark-obituary-smcjlcvdf|archive-date=26 August 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

While involved in the Matrix Churchill trial 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 barrister, and her daughters, Josephine and Alison.<ref name='grauniad'>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jun/12/uk.books |title=Coven's footnote to Clark diaries |access-date=7 March 2010 |last=Dodd |first=Vikram |date=12 June 2004 |work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090614101602/http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jun/12/uk.books |archive-date=14 June 2009 |location=London |url-status=live |df=dmy }}</ref> After sensationalist tabloid headlines, Clark's wife Jane remarked upon what Clark had called "the coven" with the line: "Well, what do you expect when you sleep with below-stairs types?" She referred to her husband as an "S,&nbsp;H,&nbsp;one,&nbsp;T".

==Death==
Clark died at Saltwood Castle on 5 September 1999, aged 71, after suffering from a brain tumour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/sep/07/uk.politicalnews|title=Alan Clark dies|date=7 September 1999|website=The Guardian}}</ref> His body was buried in the grounds of the castle. Upon his death, his family said Clark wanted it to be stated that he had "gone to join Tom and the other dogs."<ref name=Lyall>Lyall, Sandra. {{cite web | title=Alan Clark, a British Scold, Is Dead at 71 | website=The New York Times | date=1999-09-08 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/world/alan-clark-a-british-scold-is-dead-at-71.html | access-date=2021-05-29 | archive-date=18 September 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170918124444/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/world/alan-clark-a-british-scold-is-dead-at-71.html | url-status=dead }}, ''The New York Times'', 8 September 1999.</ref>

== Media ==
In 1993 Clark gave a half-hour ''[[Opinions (TV series)|Opinions]]'' lecture, televised by [[Channel 4]], of which he said in his diary: "It was good. Clear, assured, moving. I looked compos and in my 'prime'. Many people saw it. All were enthusiastic. Today acres of coverage in ''[[The Times]]''."<ref>Alan Clark, ''The Last Diaries'', Weidenfeld, 2002, entry for 22 February 1993, {{ISBN|9780753816950}}</ref> In 1997 Clark presented a four-part series for the BBC entitled ''Alan Clark's History of the Tory Party''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10189654/|title=Alan Clark's History of the Tory Party (TV Series 1997) |date=14 September 1997|via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>

In 2004, [[John Hurt]] portrayed Clark (and [[Jenny Agutter]] his wife Jane) in the BBC's ''[[The Alan Clark Diaries]]'', reigniting some of the controversies surrounding their original publication and once again brought his name into the British press and media. An authorised biography of Alan Clark by Ion Trewin, the editor of his diaries, was published in September 2009.

==See also==
* [[List of animal rights advocates]]

==Publications==
* ''Bargains at Special Prices'' (1960).
* ''Summer Season'' (1961).
* ''The Donkeys: A History of the British Expeditionary Force in 1915'' (1961).
* ''The Fall of Crete'' (1963).
* ''Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941–1945'' (1965).
* ''The Lion Heart: A Tale of the War in Vietnam'' (1969).
* ''Suicide of the Empires'' (1971).
* ''Aces High: The War in the Air over the Western Front 1914–1918'' (1973).
* ''[[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 Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State 1922–1997'' (1998).
* ''Backfire: A Passion for Cars and Motoring'' (2001).

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* {{cite book |last=Trewin |first=Ion |title=Alan Clark: The Biography |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-297-85073-1}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Hansard-contribs |mr-alan-clark |Alan Clark}}
* {{NPG name}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100911105846/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7623889/Alan-Clark.html Alan Clark] (''Daily Telegraph'' obituary).
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3394037.stm BBC: The Alan Clark I knew]
* [https://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]
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/R/real_lives/alan_clark.html Channel 4 biography]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093pyw Appearance on Desert Island Discs 25 August 1995]

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{{succession box
  | title  = Member of Parliament for [[Plymouth Sutton]]
  | years  = 1974–1992
  | before = [[David Owen]]
  | after  = [[Gary Streeter]]
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{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Kensington and Chelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington and Chelsea]]|years=1997–1999}}
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