Cecil Belfield Clarke
{{Short description|Barbadian-English physician and Pan-Africanist (1894–1970)}}
{{about||the soldier and inventor|Cecil Vandepeer Clarke|the Canadian politician|Cecil Clarke}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
|name =
|image = File:Photograph of deceased physican and activist Cecil Belfield Clarke (1894 – 1970).jpg
|image_size = 250px
|caption = Clarke, date unknown
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1894|4|12|df=y}}
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1970|11|28|1894|4|12}}
|birth_place = Barbados
|death_place = St Stephen's Hospital, Barnet, London
|occupation = Physician
|nationality =
|partner =
|education = Combermere School, Barbados
|alma_mater = St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge
|spouse =
|children =
|website =
|footnotes =
}}
Cecil Belfield Clarke (also known as Belfield Clarke) (12 April 1894 – 28 November 1970) was a Barbadian-born physician who qualified in the United Kingdom and practised near the Elephant & Castle in London. He was a Pan-Africanist and was one of the founders of the League of Coloured Peoples in 1931.
Early life
Little is known of Clarke's early life. He attended Combermere School in Barbados.{{Cite web|url=https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/about-us/history/black-history/c-b-clarke|title=St Catharine's College, Cambridge: Cecil Belfield Clarke|access-date=11 January 2021}} He won an island scholarship to study medicine at Cambridge University.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Cecil Belfield Clarke|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095615294|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209150729/http://www.oxfordreference.com:80/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095615294 |archive-date=9 February 2018 |access-date=2021-02-06|editor-first=David|editor-last=Dabydeen|editor-link=David Dabydeen|editor2=John Gilmore|editor3=Cecily Jones|website=The Oxford Companion to Black British History {{!}} Oxford Reference|language=en}} He arrived in London on 28 September 1914, just after the outbreak of World War I, having travelled on the RMS Tagus,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1518/images/30807_A000594-00355?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=drj103&_phstart=successSource&pId=24874223|title=Tagus ship's manifest via Ancestry|access-date=12 January 2021}} which, after this journey, became a hospital ship.{{Cite web|url=https://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=18689|title=Clyde Ships: RMS Tagus|access-date=10 January 2021}} Other passengers included Aucher Warner, cricketer and future Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago; the colonial administrator Herbert Peebles; Kenneth Knaggs, the son of Sir Samuel Knaggs, the Colonial Secretary of Trinidad and Tobago at the time; Roland Allport, a medical practitioner; Thomas Orford, the Government medical officer for Grenada; and Richard Batson, who played cricket for Barbados and qualified as a medical practitioner in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1920.
Career
Clarke went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and was awarded a BA in 1917. He remained a devoted member of the College community, being President of the College Society in 1965–66{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1965r.pdf|title=Election of Officers, the Benevolent Fund and Honoraria|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=18|date=September 1965|access-date=11 January 2021}} and thereafter one of the Vice-Presidents until his death in 1970.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1966r.pdf|title=Officers of the Society 1966–67|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=5|date=September 1966|access-date=11 January 2021}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1967r.pdf|title=Officers of the Society 1967–68|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=5|date=September 1967|access-date=11 January 2021}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1968r.pdf|title=Officers of the Society 1968–69|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=5|date=September 1968|access-date=11 January 2021}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1969r.pdf|title=Officers of the Society 1969–70|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=5|date=September 1969|access-date=11 January 2021}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1970r.pdf|title=Officers of the Society 1970–71|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=5|date=September 1970|access-date=11 January 2021}}{{Cite journal|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1971r.pdf|title=Obituaries {{!}} CECIL BELFIELD CLARKE Died—28th November 1970|journal=St Catharine's College Society Magazine|page=22|date=September 1971|access-date=11 January 2021}} He endowed a prize for Natural Sciences, which was first awarded in 1955.{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=September 1955|title=College Awards|url=https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1955r.pdf|journal=St Catherine's Society Magazine|volume=|page=68|via=}} The Belfield Clarke Prize is still awarded by the college.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2020-09-09|title=Cecil Belfield Clarke (1894–28 November 1970) {{!}} Our Black History|url=https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/about-us/history/black-history/c-b-clarke|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031233123/https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/about-us/history/black-history/c-b-clarke |archive-date=31 October 2020 |access-date=2021-02-06|website=St Catharine's College, Cambridge|language=en}}
Clarke qualified in 1918 with the Conjoint Diploma (MRCS (Eng) and LRCP (Lond)), in 1919 as DPH, in 1920 as BChir, and in 1921 as FRCS (Edin) and MB (Cambridge).{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=26 December 1970|title=Obituary: C Belfield Clarke|url=|journal=British Medical Journal|volume=4|issue=5738|pages=808|via=}}Medical Register, 1931. In 1923, he was in London at University College Hospital.Medical Register, 1923. By at least 1924 he was practising in Southwark at 112 Newington Causeway SE1, where he would practise for the rest of his professional career,In 1924 he gave his address as 112 Newington Causeway on a ship's manifest. {{Cite web|url=https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=TNA%2FBT27%2F1039%2F00%2F0052%2FP%2F0004F&parentid=TNA%2FBT27%2F1039000052%2F00066|title=Find My Past: Van Rensselaer|access-date=12 January 2021}} although he may have practised there as early as 1920.{{Cite book|last=Bourne|first=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Bourne (writer)|title=Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939–45|publisher=The History Press|year=2020|isbn=|location=|pages=91–92}}
He practised at Newington Causeway throughout World War II, despite the heavy bombardment of the area. In 1941, the area was so badly bombed that 112 Newington Causeway remained the only building standing in the row of shops and houses; one wall of his surgery was open to the elements.{{cite book|author=Bourne|title=Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939–45|date=2020|page= 92}} At the time of the 1950 Ordnance Survey, 112 Newington Causeway remained on its own, surrounded by bombsites.{{Cite web|url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102904561|title=National Library of Scotland: TQ3179SE|access-date=11 January 2021}} Clarke retired in 1965, and 112 Newington Causeway was demolished after that.
He was a member of the Council of the British Medical Association from 1954 to 1967.
= Clark's rule =
{{Main|Clark's rule}}
Clarke developed the misnamed Clark's rule, a mathematical formula used to calculate the proper dosage of medicine for children aged 2–17.{{Cite web|url=https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Clark’s+rule|title=The Free Dictionary: Clark's Rule|access-date=12 January 2021}}
Pan-Africanism
Clarke was one of the founders of the civil-rights organization the League of Coloured Peoples along with another South London medical practitioner, Harold Moody, in 1931, and was a member of the League's executive committee.{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/SLAmoodyH.htm|title=Spartacus Educational: Harold Moody|access-date=12 January 2021}} Other early members included C. L. R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Una Marson, and Paul Robeson. Clarke hosted garden parties at his house in Barnet for the League.{{Cite book|last1=Adi|first1=Hakim|author-link=Hakim Adi|title=Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787|author2=Marika Sherwood|publisher=|year=2003|isbn=|location=|pages=|chapter=Harold Moody}}{{cite thesis|url=https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/files/4912261/final_thesis_pdf_after_corrections.pdf|title=Creolising London: Black West Indian activism and the politics of race and empire in Britain, 1931-1948|first=Daniel James|last=Whittall|publisher=University of London|date=2012}}
He was elected the first chair of the House Committee of Aggrey House, a hostel established in London in 1934 for students from Africa and the Caribbean.{{cite web|url=https://southwarkheritage.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/dr-cecil-belfield-clarke-1894-1970/|title=Dr. Cecil Belfield Clarke (1894–1970)|first=Lisa|last=Soverall|website=Southwark Heritage Blog|date=7 October 2020|access-date=5 March 2021}}
In the 1930s Clarke was also active in the International African Service Bureau, with C. L. R. James and George Padmore, a London-based organisation intended to address issues relating to Africa and the African diaspora.{{Cite book|last=Matera|first=Marc|url=|title=Black London: The Imperial Metropolis And Decolonization In The Twentieth Century|date=2015|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95990-3|location=|pages=37|oclc=}}
Clarke wrote the obituary for the Pan-Africanist activist George Padmore in The Times in 1959. He was active in the West African Students' Union (WASU), which helped influence Ghanaian nationalism.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=6 March 2012|title=History of Ghana's Independence|url=https://www.todaygh.com/history-of-ghanas-independence/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170530060229/http://www.todaygh.com:80/history-of-ghanas-independence/ |archive-date=30 May 2017 |access-date=12 January 2021|website=Ghana Today online}} Through WASU, Clarke became acquainted with the American Pan-Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois. The University of Massachusetts Amherst holds Du Bois's papers, which include an extensive correspondence with Clarke. The letters invariably end "with greetings to Pat".{{Cite web|url=https://www.findingaids.library.umass.edu/ead/mums312|title=UMass Amherst: W.E.B. Du Bois Papers|access-date=12 January 2021}} Clarke was active in Ghanaian medical circles: he was Chairman of the Ghana Medical Advisory Committee, and wrote letters to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) about independent Ghana's first medical school, the University of Ghana Medical School.{{Cite journal|date=7 July 1962|title=Health in Ghana|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20373975|first=C. Belfield|last= Clarke|journal=British Medical Journal|volume=2|issue=5296|pages=49–50|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.5296.49-b|jstor=20373975|s2cid=73357409|via=}}
Clarke kept an open house for West Indians at his home in Barnet on Sunday afternoons.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=26 January 1950|title=Distinguished W.I. Doctor|newspaper=The Barbados Advocate|page=2|url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00098964/02293/2j|access-date=}}
Personal life
Clarke was homosexual. As was usual before decriminalisation in 1967, Clarke was discreet. His lifelong partner was Pat Walker (Edward George Walker, 1902–1999), whom Clarke employed as his secretary. By at least 1939 they were living together in Clarke's house in Barnet, which Clarke called Belfield House,{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/61596/images/tna_r39_1194_1194d_012?usePUB=true&_phsrc=drj104&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=12933795|title=1939 Register via Ancestry|access-date=12 January 2021}} but they had both been on the electoral register at 112 Newington Causeway in 1929.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1795/images/40020_190886-00730?treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=drj111&_phstart=successSource&pId=70995296|title=London Electoral Register, 1929, via Ancestry|access-date=12 January 2021}} After Clarke's death, Walker remained at Belfield House, but after the latter's death in 1999, it was left to St Catharine's College.London Borough of Barnet, planning decision notice, 26 October 1999. The college has since sold the house, and it is now a nursery, Belfield Montessori.{{Cite web|url=https://www.belfield-montessori.co.uk|title=Belfield Montessori|access-date=12 January 2021}}
Clarke died in 1970, aged 76, at St Stephen's Hospital, Barnet.Barnet Registry Office, December 1970 quarter, Vol 5a, page 198. (St Stephen's was a geriatric hospital that closed in 1989.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ezitis.myzen.co.uk/barnetisolation.html|title=Lost Hospitals of London: St Stephen's Hospital|access-date=10 January 2021}} Clarke's obituary in the BMJ incorrectly states that he died in Barnet General Hospital.)
Legacy
A blue plaque honouring Clarke was placed on a building near the site of his practice in April 2023,{{Cite journal |last=Shepherd |first=Alison |date=22 April 2023 |title=Blue plaque honours pioneering GP |url=https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p869 |journal=British Medical Journal |volume=381 |pages=869|doi=10.1136/bmj.p869 |pmid=37076139 |s2cid=258190047 }} sponsored by Black History Walks in collaboration with the Nubian Jak Community Trust.{{cite web|url=https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/blue-plaque|title=Pioneering alumnus celebrated with blue plaque|publisher=St Catharine's College, Cambridge|date=13 April 2023|access-date=6 May 2023}} The prize that Clarke endowed at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, continues to be awarded. He was one of the Black Londoners featured in an exhibition at the Cuming Museum in 2008, curated by the historian Stephen Bourne, Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front, 1939 to 1945.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2008|title=Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front, 1939 to 1945 : Resource Pack : April 1 to November 1 2008|url=https://www.canonshistory.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/2/3/20237089/keep_smiling_through1.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114094853/https://www.canonshistory.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/2/3/20237089/keep_smiling_through1.pdf |archive-date=14 January 2021 |access-date=12 January 2021|website=|publisher=Cuming Museum, Southwark Council}} Belfield Clarke was one of the figures highlighted by LGBT History Month UK in February 2024, in connection to that year's theme: Medicine.
References
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Category:20th-century British medical doctors
Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge
Category:Barbadian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Category:Black British activists
Category:Black British health professionals
Category:British civil rights activists
Category:British pan-Africanists
Category:English people of Barbadian descent
Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh