A CHAMPION OF DECORUM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 October 1928, Page 9

A CHAMPION OF DECORUM

“THE THIED SEX” ! : The recent death of Councillor Donald "-.3 Clark, the arch-opponent- of mixed hath-' .- ing, inspired the “Daily Chronicle”’(ton* •>? don) to recall some of the incidents of his campaign for decorum. Claiming to be a descendant of one of the greatest of -LT Puritans—Oliver Cromwell—Councillor Clark attracted world-wide attention by his sensational outburst in the Tonbridgei (Eng.) Council Chamber against mixed bathing eight years ago. ■ Ho condemned the practice on “iMi- ' perialistic and patriotic -grounds,” de- ... claring that the sight of a woman in n ’ ‘ bedraggled bathing costume with her : hair straggling over her eyes like a'w'efc ’ Skye terrier would drive from a mams- - mind any. thought of marriage. ’ ."A, few years later he made an attack'6n 'the alleged immodesty of tennis, condemning the "audaciously low-cut jumpers, and the lawless freedom of scanty skirts.” This was the prelude to an attack on "snorts girls,” whom he described as “The Third Sex.” One of' the saddest moments in „■ Councillor Clark’s life was when two of his fallow-, councillors at Tonbridge, who had formerly supported him in his mixed-bath-ing protest, deigned to judge a charity, ankle competition.