John Lockie CLARK [939]

   Another name for John was Jack.

  General Notes:

John Lockie Clark
Baptism Date: 29 Dec 1852
Baptism Place: St. Peter's, Monk-Wearmouth, Durham, England
Father: George Clark
Mother: Jane Clark
FHL Film Number: 1514564

John Lockie Clark was an entrepreneurial businessman and keen sportsman

John Lockie Clark Southampton Lodge Oakleigh Park Whetstone N. Freehold House.
Electoral Register Enfield 1887 - 97

John instigated divorce proceedings in June 1884 against his first wife.

Marriage 9 August 1888.
John Lockie Clark 36 widower gentlemen of Friern Barnet, father George Clark gentleman to Lucy Adelaide Julius 24 spinster of Southery father A.E. Julius Clerk in Holy Orders. Signed by both in the presence of A.E. Julius, Henry Clark, E. C. P. Hull, . . . . . Leigh, Blanche E. Julius. By licence. By Henry Miles Vicar of All Saints Friern Barnet.
Ref: marriage register St Mary the Virgin Southery

Julius Jottings No 3 October 1900.
At the end of their usual summer visit to Hunstanton, Mr and Mrs J. L. Clark returned to Oakleeigh Park on their motor car, passing through Southery en route.

Julius Jottings No 3 October 1900.
The Clarks are moving from Southampton Lodge, Oakleigh Park, before Christmas.

Julius Jottings January 1902 No 6 Pg 7
Mr & Mrs J L Clark have taken a house near London their address is The Elms Cassiobury Park Watford London N.

HUNSTANTON
THE LATE MR. J. L. CLARK. - the death occurred at his residence, "Homefields" on the 23rd ult., of Mr. John Lockie Clark, aged 83 years. He was the son of Mr. George Clark, of Sunderland, founder of George Clark, Ltd., the Southwick engine-works firm. At the age of 20 he joined the shipping firm Culliford and Clark, a business founded over 100 years ago., and subsequently became a partner. He was well known in shipping circles, and was one of the pioneers of tramp steamer brokerage. He early saw the great possibilities of the pleasure cruise industry, and was responsible for the first venture in that direction. He purchased the s.s. Ceylon in 1881 which, after being specially fitted out, took 100 passengers for a cruise round the world. His firm owned the first ships that brought full cargoes of wheat from the Plate and cotton from the Gulf. He had offices in London, Sunderland, Newcastle, Glasgow and Liverpool, and in one season had 100 steamers engaged in the cotton-carrying trade. This was easily a "record" for this branch of business. These were but a few of his pioneering feats in the shipping world.
He at one time resided at Oakleigh Park, Friern Barnet, and later for 17 years at The Elms, Watford, before going to live permanently at Hunstanton.
Probably Mr. Clark will be best remembered for his activities in the world of sport, of which he was a veritable Admirable Crichton. He participated in and supported practically every form of outdoor entertainment. He was captain of his school cricket XI., and became a very keen and efficient boxer. He was a prominent member of the Belsize boxing club. Although he never rode regularly to hounds, he was a very fine rider and a splendid judge of horses, and always broke his own mounts in. As a golfer, when over the age of 60, he held the amateur records for two courses - Hunstanton and West Herts, Cassiobury Park. He was one of the founders of the former club, and was captain in 1897. He won the captain's prize when over 70, and played regularly until he was 82. In a recent article written by Bernard Darwin and published in "Golf Illustrated" he was referred to as the Grand Old Man of golf. An enthusiastic motorist since motoring's earliest days, he owned a car in 1898 and was a contemporary member of the original Automobile Club with the Hon. C. S. Rolls., F. S. Edge and C. Jarrot. Shooting, swimming, diving and skating also found in him an active and skilful exponent. Greatly interested in photography from the time of the wet-plate, he later specialised in stereoscopic work, and had the first reflex camera constructed to his own design by Adams. He travelled extensively in his earlier days and visited most countries of the world. He became an excellent linguist and spoke French fluently. He was of an extremely kind and generous nature, and his courtesy and consideration to others endeared him to a wide circle of friends. A quiet benefactor to innumerable charities he was never known to refuse assistance to a deserving cause. During his residence in Hunstanton, football, tennis, cricket, the kennel society, music, and all social activities found in him a ready and liberal patron. Mr. Clark is survived by a widow (the daughter of the late Rev. A. E. Julius, a former rector of Southery), four sons and two daughters. His eldest son died in 1918.

The funeral of Mr. Clark took place at St. Mary's church, Old Hunstanton, on Saturday. The service was taken by the Rev. Douglas Smith, assisted by the Rev. H. F. Rushmer (vicar of Thornham). Mr. F. J. Bond was at the organ and a full choir was in attendance. As the mourners entered the church Chopin's Funeral March was played followed by "O for the wings of a dove." After a short service, Psalm xxiii. was chanted and "Abide with me" was sung. At the close the organist played the Nunc Dimittis. The immediate mourners were: the widow, sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, other near relatives, members of the Homefield's staff, and some intimate personal friends. Others present included ....[then follows a long list of names]. The interment took place close to the south porch of the church, and the grave was lined with evergreens and dahlias. There were over fifty wreaths.
The Lynn Advertiser, Wisbech Constitutional Gazette

October 26, 1935 - Pgae 1 Col A - Deaths
CLARK.- On Oct. 23. 1935. at Homefields, Hunstanton, peacefully, JOHN LOCKIE CLARK, beloved husband of Lucy Adelaide Clark (née Julius), in his 84th year. Funeral at the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin. Hunstanton Village, to-day (Saturday) at 2.30 P.m. Mourning optional.

Clark John Lockey, Homefield's, Hunstanton, Norfolk, died 23 October 1935 and same place, testate. Probate of the will and codicils granted London, 20 November 1935 to Stanley Clark and Malcolm Clark, the sons, two of the executors. Certified in Edinburgh 18 December 1935. Value of estate £317,283 18s 5d.
Scotland National Probate Index.

  Research Notes:

Biography of John (Jack) Lockie Clarke by John Green.
It has not been discovered where Jack went to school. It may be that like his business partner James Culliford, he went to Mr. James Chalmer's school in Sunderland, or he may have been sent to the Grammar School at Crossgate just outside Durham like his younger brothers. Whatever the case, Jack did not pursue further academic or professional training and instead went into commerce. At the time of the 1871 census he was describing himself as a "Ship Merchant" in Sunderland and later when he got married in London in 1874, he was still a merchant and living at Hampstead.

Jack's father must have recognised in his son someone with similar energy and business acumen to himself in his younger days and when he went into partnership with James Culliford in about 1875/76 to create the firm of Culliford & Clark, he appointed Jack as his representative in London. It has not been established exactly when Culliford & Clark first started trading in Sunderland (James had been in business from c. 1861), but it was probably about the time mentioned above. The firm is also reported to be trading in London in 1880 when it had offices at 32, Great St. Helen's in the city not far from the Baltic Exchange.

Jack's father's trust in him was amply rewarded, and it seems that Jack made a very considerable success of running the London branch of the business (there was also a Glasgow and a Liverpool branch for many years). The Sunderland branch, and later the Newcastle one, seem always to have been overseen by the Culliford family; first by James Culliford himself until a few months before his death in 1911 and later by his son Robert. In his Will, Jack's father bequeathed him sole charge of the Clark family's interest in the firm and at some stage, he must have become a full partner with James Culliford.

Culliford & Clark seem to have been ship owners and ships brokers in the main but also were involved in chartering and yacht managing. One early innovation that was attributed to Jack in his obituary was the idea of cruises. Hitherto people had mostly used ships to reach a particular destination but in 1881, the Inter-Oceanic Steam Yachting Company Limited was set up to offer yachting voyages for pleasure, voyages that would visit many places of interest.

One can only speculate about the extent to which Jack was instrumental in setting up the Inter-Oceanic Steam Yachting Company Limited but he and James Culliford were among its directors and, not surprisingly, Culliford & Clark were appointed yacht managers to the company. It is said that Jack acquired the 2110 ton screw-steamer Ceylon for the company from P & O in 1881. She had been a small passenger steamer with P & O but was extensively converted to provide first-class accommodation for 100 passengers and their servants, including "a luxurious boudoir for the exclusive use of ladies, and a capital smoking-room for gentlemen."

The idea of cruising on a yacht for pleasure took a year or two become established so, despite considerable advertising, Inter-Oceanic only succeeded in getting about 60 passengers on its first cruise, which sailed from Southampton in December 1881, and many of those only did parts of the voyage. The whole cruise was an around-the-world voyage lasting 10 months and costing £500 per passenger and £150 per servant for the entire trip; lesser amounts were paid for various stages. This was clearly much too ambitious a voyage for that time.

A second cruise was planned around the Mediterranean commencing in December 1882 (Fare £125), which never sailed, followed by a third to the Northern Latitudes (along the Norwegian fjords and Swedish coast-line). It too was not well enough supported, and the company was put into voluntary liquidation in June of the following year. From its ashes emerged the Ocean Steam Yachting Company Limited with a different office but, presumably, similar directors. It offered shorter cruises and survived until 1885 when it too went into voluntary liquidation. The s.s. Ceylon seems then to have been acquired by private owner who, when he was not using it himself, chartered it for cruises in the Mediterranean, North Sea, etc. These must have been successful because the s.s. Ceylon continued to be used as a cruising yacht for another 20 years or more.

At sometime Jack got to know a couple of city gentlemen by the names of Edmund Hull and William Blyth, who were in partnership in a coal contracting business. One supposes that Jack met them through needing to make arrangements for the supply of bunker coal for Culliford & Clark's steamships.

Edmund was married to Fanny Julius, and it seems likely that it was through this connection that Jack met, and later married, Lucy Julius, Fanny's younger sister; it is hard to imagine, otherwise, how someone like Jack would have met a clergyman's daughter from a small isolated Norfolk hamlet. William Blyth must have been a good friend also because he was a groomsman at Jack and Lucy's wedding.

Through Edmund and William, Jack seems to have developed quite an interest in coal as a business and the three of them were for a time co-directors of a company called the Coal Brick Syndicate Limited and, probably, its successor. This company was the owner of various patents for an improved process (it did not use pitch to bind the material) to make coal or coke dust, etc. into briquettes, and it hoped to sell the process worldwide.

As so often where Jack was concerned, so it seems, the financial arrangements were tortuous and, barely a year after joining the board, Jack found himself appointed liquidator of a company (one in which he probably had shares) that had bought the rights from the Coal Brick Syndicate to sell licences for the process in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, the Coal Brick Syndicate had itself been liquidated and turned into the New Coal Brick Syndicate, which itself was liquidated three years later. Whether or not all these company formations and liquidations were bona-fide business transactions or simply a stock market scam can only be guessed at, as can the commercial success of the process on which they were based.

Jack's interest in coal obviously equipped him well to deal with problems in that industry when they occurred from time to time and this report from The Belfast News-Letter well illustrates his drive and initiative in the miners strike of 1893:'97

THE MINERS' STRIKE
The Central News telegraphs that a development has been brought about by the present disturbed condition of the coal industry in England and Wales, which cannot fail to have an important effect upon home trade and industry. Messrs. Culliford and Clark, of London, have, it appears, for years done a very considerable trade in arranging for the coaling of many of the great ocean liners, the fuel being conveyed from various coal ports to outgoing steamers as required. Owing however, to the existing strike, and the scarcity of coal even at increased rates, the danger has presented itself of vessels having to lay up for want of coal. This difficulty has, the Central News is informed, been surmounted by Messrs. Culliford and Clark who within the last few days have chartered vessels to carry several thousand tons of coal from Norfolk, Virginia, to the various Atlantic ports of call or destinations of the liners, and at one or other of these the steamers will receive their supply of bunker coal. It is stated that this is not the only firm which has adopted this expedient towards maintaining ocean-going traffic, and that the same time effecting a very great saving in the cost of fuel. Those who are interested in this new source of supply say that the present demand for the Pocahontas coal is unprecedented, and add that as fully equals the best Welsh steam coal the existing necessity of going to such a market for supplies is likely to have more than a temporary effect on future consumption of British coal.

The report of Jack's death below mentions other successful business activities that he instigated. In addition, he was of course a director and major shareholder of George Clark Limited (GCL) for many years and, doubtless, brought a keen commercial mind to the board's deliberations.

As the report of his death shows, Jack had many skills and interests outside of his business life, above all of which was his love of golf. It has not been discovered when or where he took up golf, but it may have been at the West Herts Golf Club, which was started in 1890 in Bushey Hall and with whom Jack was playing in matches as early as 1894 (he was described as a sterling golfer when winning three up against Stanmore in that year), or at the Hunstanton Golf Club where he was a founder member in 1891 and Captain in 1897. Two years later Jack was Captain of West Herts. From the 1890s onwards, he and his family were keen the patrons of both these clubs. Indeed, it may well be that when Jack decided to move from his house in Lancaster Gate (he had moved back into London at some point), he chose The Elms, near Cassiobury Park, Watford, because of its propinquity to the West Herts course, which had moved there in 1897. At that time, it was the only golf course in Hertfordshire.

The Hunstanton Club membership came about because the family had regularly holidayed in that part of Norfolk in the 1890s. When The Elms was eventually given up, and the family settled at Hunstanton, a house that Jack must have acquired early in the 1900s, their focus became the golf club there. At the time a local golfing wit wrote these lines in SHAP SHOTS, the golf club's magazine, in its issue of 14th February, 1918:-

For J. L. Clarke [sic] we justly claim,
A front page on the Book of Fame,
His record of a man of parts
Is in the annals of West Herts,
that he and his with us abide
Is flattering to Hunston's pride.

The members of the Clark family won many medals at Hunstanton. Jack himself won the President's Prize in June 1908 aged 56 and the Captain's Prize in July 1921 when he was nearly 70. In 1922 the family present a perpetual annual challenge cup - The Clark Cup - which has been competed forever since.,

Following Jack's win in July 1921 Golf Illustrated published this this comment by Mr. H. H. Hilton:-

The Player of Fifty and Over.
Judging by the performance of Mr. J. C. Clark [sic] in a recent event on Hunstanton links, there is hope for us all who are on the wrong side of the fifty mark. Mr Clark has arrived at the venerable age of three score and ten, but his handicap is only a matter of four strokes, and he has recently emphatically proved that it is a very free allowance, as in the play for the captain's prize he qualified for the match play with a return of 78 less 4'9774, and then in the subsequent match play proceeded to successfully eliminate the three players he had to meet. The first he defeated by two holes, the second of the Obstructors was accounted for much more easily as he had to cry enough on the fourteenth green, whilst the final of the 36 holes the veteran won by four up and three to play.
The Strain of Three Days' Play
To my way of thinking, the most remarkable part of this feat was the fact that the old gentleman could stand the strain of three days' consecutive serious competition play, and he must be gifted with an extraordinary amount of stamina. At the recent championship meeting at Hoylake it was rather significant that the men who were on the other side of the fifty mark were not a little inclined to flag in the afternoon round, and it was not a little evidence that the morning effort had taken not a little out of them. Of course, a club competition is not a championship, but still, Mr. Clark's performance was a wonderful feat, and the comparative veteran would probably be gratified if the old gentleman would tell us how it is all done; personally I cannot quite imagine myself proceeding through such an ordeal at the age of 70.

A few years later in May 1934 "MEL" (J. B. Melhuish, a noted sporting caricaturist) who did golf caricatures for The Tatler drew some of the personalities at Hunstanton and Jack featured among them as the sketch shows.

Jack is said to have had a reputation in the family for being rather tight with money and his grandson Michael Clark told this story by way of illustration. Once when Jack was staying at Gleneagles (something, he did every year taking the Royal Suite above the front door) he found that his bill, which he paid every week, included 6d per day for pressing his evening trousers, so he locked them away in a drawer out of the valet's reach. This carefulness with money does not seem to be borne out by the reports of his generosity to good causes in his obituary or by the fact that he helped set up several of his sons in various businesses. It may be that this reputation came about because the sons in question expected to be given the money rather than lent it.

Jack died in the middle of the 1930s depression, when, like others, GCL's business was in the doldrums, and it is a great credit to his business acumen that his estate was valued at over £300,000 '97 equivalent to about £16 million^† worth of purchasing power in 2009.

The terms of Jack's Will are illuminating in several ways: first, he clearly had deep reservations about Ivan and George's ability to handle money (and not without good reason - see their stories), and therefore, directed that they should not get their hands on any capital but only have the interest from it. Second, he wanted his son John's children, who were grown up by then, to have some income, so he stipulated that Ethel, John's widow, should only receive half the income from John's share. Finally, it revealed that he had kept a "Black Book" in which he had noted the amounts that he had lent or advanced to his children over the years.

It is interesting to speculate about to whom and for what purpose these loans and advances were made. The obvious candidates, one supposes, might have been Ivan and George during their years in America, Ivan's poultry farm near Colchester in the 1920s, and Archibald's farming venture in Kent.

In his Will, he directed that where entries in the Black Book had been marked by him, the amount involved was to be taken into hotchpot in determining the person's share of his estate. Who was affected by this and the amounts involved never emerged because after Jack's funeral, his sons had a family conference and agreed that the Black Book should be mislaid, and so it was.
Note
^† Calculation based on the retail price index.
Ref John Green: Family data website http://www.green.gen.name/index.htm

Image courtesy of John Green

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Belsize Park Hampstead LND MDX. John is recorded as head of house married aged 29 shipowner and ship broker Nav Serv On Shore born Durham Sunderland

2. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, Southampton Lodge Friern Barnet MDX. John is recorded as head of house married aged 39 Master and ship owner and ship broker born Durham

3. Census: England, 2 Apr 1911, The Elms Watford Herts. John is recorded as head of house married 22yrs aged 59 a shipbroker an employer born Sunderland

4. John Lockie Clark.
Images courtesy of John Green

John married Margaret Jane THOMPSON [23869] [MRIN: 8566], daughter of Robert THOMPSON [23870] and Sarah BARBARY [23871], on 6 May 1874 in Holy Trinity Southwick DUR. (Margaret Jane THOMPSON [23869] was born in 1853 in Sunderland DUR.)

John next married Lucy Adelaide JULIUS [938] [MRIN: 305], daughter of Rev Archibald Aeneas JULIUS [847] and Charlotte MAYOR [848], on 9 Aug 1888 in Southery NFK. (Lucy Adelaide JULIUS [938] was born in 1864 in Southery NFK, baptised on 15 May 1864 in Southery NFK, died on 30 Jan 1936 in Hatch End MDX and was buried on 3 Feb 1936 in St Mary Churchyard Hunstanton NFK.)