FAMOUS LAWYER’S MEMOIR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 July 1931, Page 2

FAMOUS LAWYER’S MEMOIR

SIR EDWARD CLARKE, K.C. The announcement of the death on 26th April of Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., in. his 91st year, was accompanied in “The Times” by a memoir written by Sir Edward himself, the manuscript of which he sent to “The Times” on 31st March, 1913. In the accompanying letter he wrote: “It seems to me that an obituary notice of a man should be written by himself, if lie should have reached old age (as is the case with me) and should by his gradual detachment from the occupations and interests which have filled his life become capable of viewing fairly in perspective the events cf his career.” Sir Edward had had an eventful as well as distinguished career at the Bar and in politics. He was by far the senior K.C., and tlie oldest Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. His memoir, with a brief supplementary notice, occupied three columns in "The Times.” Its opening sentences were:: “The death of Sir Edward Clarke was the close, so far as earthly activities are concerned, of a very busy and very happy life. Sir Edward always spoke of himself as one of the most fortunate of men, and was wont to say that the disappointments of his career had generally turned out- to be good fortune in disguise.”

A SELF-PORTRAIT Sir Edward Clarke concluded his memoir with the following passage:— “Sir Edward Clarke owed none of his success to auy advantages of personal appearance. He was below tlie middle height, and of sturdy figure. His strong features gave the face a stern and almost harsh expression, and the brown eyes which might have softened it were halfclosed under heavy brows. In his youth and early manhood he was not a favourite with men or women; his painful earnestness gave him an unattractive severity of apeparance and manner; but in later life prosperity mellowed him, and the saving grace of humour displayed itself in some of his later speeches. His first wife died in 1882, and in the following year lie married a lady nearly 20 years his junior, and of great personal charms. In her faithful and affectionate companionship, lie enjoyed many more years of the greatest domestic happiness. Sir Edward left directions that after cremation his ashes should be placed beneath the chancel pavement of St. Peter’s Church, in a cinerary urn which was prepared for him by the Martin Brothers in 1901, and has since stood on a bookcase in his dining room.”