George Sydenham Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe GCSI, GCIE, GCMG, GBE (4 July 1848 – 7 February 1933) was a British colonial administrator and British Army officer.
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Clarke was born in Lincolnshire. He was educated at Haileybury, Wimbledon and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.[1]
Clarke was Governor of Victoria between 1901 and 1903 and again between 1907 and 1913. The latter year he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Sydenham of Combe, of Dulverton in the County of Devon.[2] After his last term as governor he was a member of the committee that issued the Esher Report. The biographer of the Committee's chairman describes Clarke as "...an insensitive, clumsy, uncouth and infinitely boring man...".[3] Clarke was also the first Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Originally a Liberal, he became increasingly reactionary in his later life and was, in the 1930s, a prominent supporter of fascist causes.
In 1892, while sering as secretary of the Colonial Defence Committee, Clarke published "Fortification: Its Past Achievement, Recent Development and Future Progress". The book was influential in shaping the British view of military fortification.[4] Clarke adhered to the 'Blue Water' school of thought which saw the Royal Navy as Britain's primary defence against invasion. Large scale permanent fortifications built in peace time (such as the Palmerston Forts) were seen as a waste of money. Instead Clarke advocated the use of small field fortifications which could be built cheaply and rapidly, such as those based on the Twydall profile. His view was based in part on the successful defence of Plevna in 1877 by Turkish forces using magazine fed rifles and earthwork fortifications. Also, in 1882 following the heavy bombardment of the forts at Alexandria by the British Mediterranean Fleet, Clarke as an engineer officer had been given the task of assessing the damage to the forts. He found the bombardment had had very little effect on the earthwork defences with only 20 of the 300 guns having been dismounted. Returning from the Mediterranean Clarke was appointed to a group of officers tasked with the planning of British coast defences overseas. Sydenham-Clarke's opinions on the strength of field fortifications were largely vindicated by the trench warfare of the First World War (1914–1918).
Lord Sydenham of Combe died in February 1933, aged 84, when the barony became extinct.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Lord Brassey |
Governor of Victoria 1901–1903 |
Succeeded by Sir Reginald Talbot |
| Preceded by The Lord Lamington |
Governor of Bombay 1907–1913 |
Succeeded by The Lord Willingdon |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Sydenham of Combe 1913–1933 |
Extinct |
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