Cecil Belfield Clarke

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.

For the soldier and inventor, see Cecil Vandepeer Clarke. For the Canadian politician, see Cecil Clarke.

Early life

Little is known of Clarke's early life. He attended Combermere School in Barbados.[1] He won an island scholarship to study medicine at Cambridge.[2] He arrived in London just after the outbreak of WWI on 28 September 1914 having travelled on the RMS Tagus,[3] which, after this journey, became a hospital ship.[4] 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 in 1920.[5]

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[6] and thereafter one of the Vice-Presidents until his death in 1970.[7][8][9][10][11][12] He endowed a prize for Natural Sciences, which was first awarded in 1955.[13] The Belfield Clarke Prize is still awarded by the college.[14]

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).[15][16] In 1923 he was at University College Hospital.[17] By at least 1924 he was practising at 112 Newington Causeway SE1, where he would practise for the rest of his professional career,[18] although he may have practised there as early as 1920.[19]

He practised at Newington Causeway throughout the War, despite the heavy bombardment of the area.[19] 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.[20] At the time of the 1950 Ordnance Survey, 112 Newington Causeway remained on its own, surrounded by bombsites.[21] 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.[15]

Clark's rule
Main article: 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.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

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, which helped influence Ghanaian nationalism.[25] 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; these include an extensive correspondence with Clarke. The letters invariably end 'with greetings to Pat'.[26] Clarke was active in Ghanaian medical circles: he was Chairman of the Ghana Medical Advisory Committee, and wrote letters to the BMJ about independent Ghana's first medical school, the University of Ghana Medical School.[27]

Clarke kept an open house for West Indians at his home in Barnet on Sunday afternoons.[28]

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.[19] By at least 1939 they were living together in Clarke's house in Barnet, which Clarke called Belfield House,[29] but they had both been on the electoral register at 112 Newington Causeway in 1929.[30] 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.[31] The college has since sold the house, and it is now a nursery, Belfield Montessori.[32]

Clarke died in 1970, aged 76, at St Stephen's Hospital, Barnet.[33] (St Stephen's was a geriatric hospital, which closed in 1989.[34] Clarke's obituary in the British Medical Journal incorrectly states that he died in Barnet General Hospital.[15]

Legacy

There are no public memorials to Clarke. The prize he 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, "Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front, 1939 to 1945".[35]

References
  1. "St Catharine's College, Cambridge: Cecil Belfield Clarke". Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  2. "Cecil Belfield Clarke". The Oxford Companion to Black British History | Oxford Reference. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  3. "Tagus ship's manifest via Ancestry". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  4. "Clyde Ships: RMS Tagus". Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  5. "Tagus ship's manifest via Ancestry". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  6. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1965" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  7. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1966" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  8. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1967" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  9. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1968" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  10. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1969" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  11. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1970" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  12. "St Catharine's College Society Magazine, 1971" (PDF). Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  13. "St Catherine's Society Magazine" (PDF). St Catherine's Society Magazine. September. 1955.
  14. "Cecil Belfield Clarke (1894–28 November 1970) | Our Black History". St Catharine's College, Cambridge. 9 September 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  15. "Obituary: C Belfield Clarke". British Medical Journal. 4 (5738): 808. 26 December 1970.
  16. Medical Register, 1931.
  17. Medical Register, 1923.
  18. In 1924 he gave his address as 112 Newington Causeway on a ship's manifest. "Find My Past: Van Rensselaer". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  19. Bourne, Stephen (2020). Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939-45. The History Press). pp. 91–92.
  20. Bourne, Stephen, Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime, 1939-45, (2020: The History Press), p 92.
  21. "National Library of Scotland: TQ3179SE". Retrieved 11 January 2021.
  22. "The Free Dictionary: Clark's Rule". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  23. "Spartacus Educational: Harold Moody". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  24. Adi, Hakim; Sherwood, Marika (2003). "Harold Moody". Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora Since 1787.
  25. "History of Ghana's Independence". Ghana Today online. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  26. "UMass Amherst: W.E.B. Du Bois Papers". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  27. British Medical Journal. 2 (5296): 49–50. 7 July 1962. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  28. "Distinguisd W.I. Doctor". Barbados Advocate. 26 January 1950.
  29. "1939 Register via Ancestry". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  30. "London Electoral Register, 1929, via Ancestry". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  31. London Borough of Barnet, planning decision notice, 26 October 1999.
  32. "Belfield Montessori". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  33. Barnet Registry Office, December 1970 quarter, Vol 5a, page 198.
  34. "Lost Hospitals of London: St Stephen's Hospital". Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  35. "Keep Smiling Through: Black Londoners on the Home Front, 1939 to 1945 : Resource Pack : April 1 to November 1 2008" (PDF). Cuming Museum, Southwark Council. 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
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