| George Thomas Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1809-05-26 Chelsea, London |
| Died | 6 April 1885 (aged 75) |
| Work | |
| Engineering discipline | Civil engineering |
| Institution memberships | Royal College of Surgeons |
Colonel George Thomas Clark (26 May 1809 – 6 April 1885) was a British engineer and antiquary, particularly associated with the management of the Dowlais Iron Company.
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Clark was born in Chelsea, London, the eldest son of the Revd George Clark (1777–1848), chaplain to the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, and Clara, née Dicey. He was educated at Charterhouse School then articled to a surgeon, Sir Patrick Macgregor, in 1825 and later to George Gisborne Babington. Clark became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1832.[1]
Clark opened a practice in Bristol but by the mid 1830s was in the employ of Isembard Kingdom Brunel as an engineer on the construction of the Great Western and Taff Vale Railways. His position was a senior one with overall responsibility for some stretches of the line and for civil structures.[1] Involvement in major earth-moving works seems to have fed his interest in geology and archaeology and he, anonymously, authored two guidebooks on the railway,[2][3] in addition to a critique of Brunel's methods.[4]
Sometime in 1835, Clark made the acquaintance of John Josiah Guest, Taff Vale promoter and proprietor of the massive Dowlais Ironworks, and his family, by 1838 becoming a confidant. It was to prove a pivotal meeting, but not until Clark's return from India.[1]
From 1843 to 1847, Clark worked on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, surveying and planning the first passenger line in India, from Bombay to Thana which was opened in 1852.[1] On his return to England, he published a report on the geology of the region[5]
In 1850, Clark married Ann Price Lewis (died 1885), a descendant of Thomas Lewis, one of the original 1759 partners in the Dowlais Ironworks. Ann's brother had sold her family's last remaining interests in the firm that year, to Guest. Guest died in 1852, naming Clark, his widow Lady Charlotte Guest and Edward Divett as executors and trustees. Lady Guest would be sole trustee while a widow but she remarried in 1855 and de facto control fell on Clark.[1]
The works had been, for a while, in some decline and Clark took rapid steps to improve management controls, bringing in William Menelaus as general manager. The pair worked closely together and Dowlais became a centre of innovation. Though the Bessemer process was licensed in 1856, nine years of detailed planning and project management were needed before the first steel was produced. The company thrived with its new cost-effective production methods, forming alliances with the Consett Iron Company and Krupp.[1]
By the mid 1860s, Clark's reforms had borne fruit in renewed profitability and he was rewarded with an annual salary of £3,500 and five percent of the profits. As his wealth grew, he delegated the day-to-day management to Menelaus, his trusteeship terminating in 1864 when ownership passed to Sir Ivor Guest. However, Clark continued to direct policy, in particular, building a new plant at the docks at Cardiff and vetoing a joint-stock company. He formally retired in 1897.[1]
Clark took little interest in party politics but was an opponent of protectionism and served on a royal commission on the coal trade (1866–1871).[1]
He was an active citizen in Merthyr Tudful, his offices and duties including:
However, he opposed incorporation of Merthyr Tudful as he believed it would harm the Dowlais business interests.[1]
Clark's combined medical and engineering knowledge led to a general interest in public health.[7] He was retained by the General Board of Health and worked on analysing the sanitary condition of towns and villages countrywide.[1]
Not the least of Clark's fame attaches to his great work Cartae et Alia Munimenta Quae ad Dominium de Glamorgancia Pertinent (Charters and Other Muniments which Pertain to the Lordship of Glamorgan), published in 6 vols. at Cardiff in 1910. [1] On this monumental work is built most of the reconstructed mediaeval history of Glamorgan and much of the later history up to the 16th.c. It consists of transcripts of some 1,660 ancient charters, numbered in Roman numerals, in their original language and spelling, which Clark had searched out from various sources including Margam Abbey and Ewenny Priory. It is an invaluable work to historians and genealogists alike, and is a tribute to the energy of a man who found the time to engage on such a project in addition to his business interests. His familiarity with the names of old Glamorgan led him to produce another great work, on Welsh genealogy, "Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamorganiae (trans: The Border/Fringe/Hem of the Fathers, perhaps in the sense of "remnants of the ancient chieftains"): Being the Genealogies of the Older Families of the Lordships of Morgan and Glamorgan". Published in 1886.
The Clarks had a son and a daughter. In 1865, Clark purchased Tal-y-garn a small property near Llantrisant, Glamorgan and set about building an estate of some 924 acres (3.74 km2) with the intention of founding a landed dynasty. Clark died at Tal-y-garn and was buried there. His wealth at death was £333,305 (£27 million at 2003 prices[8]).[1]
However, the dynasty did not thrive and most of the land was sold off shortly after the death of his son in 1918.[1]