Basil Clarke
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Sir Basil Clarke (1879-12 Dec 1947) was an early pioneer of public relations (PR). He also acted as a war correspondent in the First World War, later writing a book of his experiences entitled My Round of the War. Born in Altrincham, the son of a chemist, Basil Clarke went to Manchester Grammar School and then onto Oxford University, where he studied classics and music. As a young man, he was a member of the Lancashire rugby fifteen, despite the handicap of having only one eye, the result of an accident in infancy.
Originally, he intended to make a music career. Instead, his widowed mother persuaded him to take up banking, which he reputedly hated. He soon left, apparently after learning how much money his boss made. For a year or so, he travelled Europe, earning a living playing piano in cinemas and elsewhere. He won an appointment teaching English at Heidelberg University but was soon sacked for striking a French professor in the jaw.
His entry into journalism apparently came after a chance encounter in a pub, where he joined in with some strangers as the fourth voice in a Gilbert & Sullivan quartet and was invited to write an article on musical appreciation for the Manchester Guardian. This article was greatly admired by a leading member of the Sunday Times and Clarke was invited to join this paper and after working there for several years, later joined the Daily Mail.
At the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent as a clandestine war correspondent to France. Journalists were not allowed in the war zone at this time, but Clarke managed to evade the authorities longer than any other reporter to roam the front lines. Years later, war correspondents had become greatly respectable and he travelled to almost every theatre of war reporting for the Daily Mail.
In 1918, he became director of special intelligence at the Ministry of Reconstruction. After this, he spent a short time as editor of the Sheffield Independent before moving on to director of public information at the ministry of health. He was soon moved to Ireland by the British government to be director of public information at Dublin castle, in the centre of the Irish rebellion. After the cease-fire, he was sent as a liaison officer to the deep south of the country.
During the reign of George V, Clarke was asked to write several speeches for the monarch. George V apparently once remarked "Clarke, I like the speeches you write for me, you don't make me sound too bloody pompous"[1]
Among his "victories", he is credited with making pasteurised milk acceptable in England and campaigned for legislation to have imported skimmed milk marked "unfit for babies." On behalf of the Heinz organisation, he successfully fought for legislation to stop the use of harmful colouring matter and adulterants in preserved foods. Henry J. Heinz, the founer of the business, was personally brought over from America to give evidence at a select committee of the House of Commons on the subject.
The Danish government, for his services in "promoting Anglo-Danish friendship and trade," made him a member of the Dannebrog, which is roughly comparable to a knighthood. He was also made a knight of the realm during the brief premiership of Andrew Bonar Law.
