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| Name: | Alan Clark | ||
| Birth: | April 13 1928 | ||
| Death: | September 08 1999 | ||
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Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative MP, military historian, and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy councillor in 1991. He was the author of several books of military history, including his controversial work The Donkeys (1961), which is considered to have inspired the musical satire, Oh, What a Lovely War!.
Clark became known for his flamboyance, wit, and irreverence. Norman Lamont called him "the most politically incorrect, outspoken, iconoclastic and reckless politician of our times." He is particularly remembered for his three-volume diary, a candid account of political life under Thatcher, and a moving description of the weeks preceding his death, when he continued to write until he could no longer focus on the page.
Clark was a passionate supporter of animal rights, joining activists in demonstrations at Dover against live export, and outside the House of Commons in support of Animal Liberation Front hunger-striker Barry Horne. When he died after radiation therapy for a brain tumour, his family said Clark wanted it to be stated that he had "gone to join Tom and the other dogs."
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Early life
Clark was the elder son of the renowned art historian, Kenneth, Lord Clark of Saltwood. He was born at 55 Lancaster Gate, London, and educated at St Cyprian's School, Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Modern History under Hugh Trevor-Roper, obtaining a third-class honours degree. He served in the Household Cavalry before he went on to read for the bar. He was called to the bar in 1955, but did not practise. Instead he became a military historian.
Historical writing
Clark's first book, The Donkeys (1961), was a revisionist history of the British Expeditionary Force's campaigns at the beginning of the Great War. The book covers Western Front operations during 1915, including the offensives at Neuve Chapelle and Loos, and ending with the dismissal of Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, and his replacement by Douglas Haig.
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. However even before publication Clark's work was coming under attack from supporters of Lord Haig including his son 2nd Lord Haig and historians John Terraine, Robert Blake and Hugh Trevor-Roper, former tutor to Clark, who was married to Haig's daughter. 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. However, John Terraine and A. J. P. Taylor wrote damning reviews and Michael Howard wrote "As history it is worthless" and criticised "slovenly scholarship" Howard however commended its readability and noted that descriptions of battles and battlefields are "sometimes masterly". Field Marshall Montgomery later told Clark it was "A Dreadful Tale: You have done a good job in exposing the total failure of the generalship". The book was considered to be the inspiration for the popular pacifist musical Oh! What a Lovely War, and Clark, after legal wrangles was awarded some royalties.
The book became popular with the reading public as provocative and entertaining. In more recent years, as the pendulum has moved in favour of Haig, the work has been criticised by some historians for being one-sided in its treatment of World War One generals. War Museum historian Peter Simkins complained that it was frustratingly difficult to counter Clark's prevailing view. Clark's work was described as "contemptible" by the Marquess of Anglesey whose 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".
In 1920 Princess Evelyn Blücher published her memoirs which attributed the phrase to the German GHQ in 1918. Clark attributed the words to German General Max Hoffmann at the start of the war, but was equivocal about its origin for many years. The book's title was drawn from the expression "Lions led by donkeys," which has been widely used to compare British soldiers to their commanders. Clark claimed the words had initially been used by German General Max Hoffmann. Before his death, Clark admitted he had made it up.
Clark produced several more studies of the First and Second World Wars, including Barbarossa — after Operation Barbarossa — a history of the Eastern Front in the Second World War, before becoming involved in politics.
Diaries
Clark published the first volume of his political and personal diaries in 1993, which caused a minor embarrassment at the time with their candid 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 his own furniture" and judged it "Snobby but cutting". The account of Thatcher's downfall in 1990 has been described as the most vivid that we have and is now accepted by most contemporary political historians as the definitive account. 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.
Death
He died in 1999 of a brain tumour. His diary account of his slow death has been lauded as moving and explicit. He is buried in the grounds of Saltwood Castle. After his death, the Kensington and Chelsea constituency was won by Michael Portillo.
