Colonel Sir Ralph Stephenson Clarke, KBE TD, DL (17 August 1892 – 9 May 1970)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for East Grinstead from 1936 to 1955.
He was elected to the House of Commons at a by-election in July 1936, after East Grinstead's Conservative MP Henry Cautley was ennobled as Baron Cautley.[2] Clarke held the seat until he stood down at the 1955 general election.[3]
He was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex in 1932,[4] and in the 1955 New Years Honours List, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), "for political and public services".[5]
Clarke was the son of Colonel Stephenson Clarke. He married Rebekah Mary Buxton, daughter of Gerald Buxton and Lucy Ethel Pease, on 15 December 1921, and they had three children.[6] His wife was from the Pease family of Darlington; Lucy's father was Joseph Whitwell Pease and her maternal grandfather was Alfred Fox, who created Glendurgan Garden.
The Stephenson Clarkes were the founders[7] in 1730 of Stephenson Clarke Shipping, Britain's oldest shipping company.[8] In 1892, Ralph Clarke's father purchased a 200-acre (0.81 km2) estate at Borde Hill, near Haywards Heath in West Sussex, and from about 1912 began collecting trees and shrubs began by financing plant-collecting expeditions to the Himalayas and China.[9] Ralph Clarke took up residence there is 1949, after the death of his father, and opened the gardens to the public in 1965.[9]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Cautley |
Member of Parliament for East Grinstead 1936 – 1955 |
Succeeded by Evelyn Emmet |