G. T. Clark

Infobox Engineer

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name = George Thomas Clark
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birth_date = 1809-05-26
birth_place = Chelsea, London
death_date = death date and age|1885|4|6|1809|5|26|df=y
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spouse =
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discipline = Civil engineering
institutions = Royal College of Surgeons
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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.

Early life

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.James (2004)]

urgeon to engineer

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 reasponsibility for some stretches of the line and for civil structures. 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, [ [Clark, G. T.] (1839) "Guidebook to the Great Western Railway"] [ [Clark, G. T.] (1846) "The History and Description of the Great Western Railway", illustrated with lithographs by John Cooke Bourne] in addition to a critique of Brunel's methods. [(1895) "Gentleman's Magazine", 279, 489–506]

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.

India

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. On his return to England, he published a report on the geology of the region [ [Clark, G. T.] (1847) "On the engineering features of the Concan and the Great Western Ghauts"]

Renewed relationship with the Guests and Dowlais

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.

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.

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.

Public service

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).

He was an active citizen in Merthyr Tudful, his offices and duties including:
*Chair of:
**Board of Guardians;
**Board of Health;
**Burial board; and
**School board, working to extend the schools founded by the Guests;
*Supporting further places of worship, including the building of St. Mary's Welsh Church;
*Command, as lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd (Dowlais) corps, Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers;
*Magistrate;
*High Sheriff of Glamorgan (1869-1899).

However, he opposed incorporation of Merthyr Tudful as he believed it would harm the Dowlais business interests.

Clark's combined medical and engineering knowledge led to a general interest in public health. [Clark, G. T. (1849) "Sanitary reform", "British Quarterly Review", February] He was retained by the General Board of Health and worked on analysing the sanitary condition of towns and villages countrywide.

Antiquary

Family and legacy

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 convert|924|acre|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 [ cite journal | title=Consumer Price Inflation since 1750 | author=O‘Donoghue, J. "et al." | journal=Economic Trends | volume=604 | year=2004 | pages=38–46, March | url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?ID=726 ] ).

However, the dynasty did not thrive and most of the land was sold off shortly after the death of his son in 1918.

Honours

*President of the British Iron Trade Association (1876).

Notes

References

*Obituaries:
**"Western Mail" [Cardiff] , 2 February 1898
**"Archaeological Journal", 55 (1898), 106–9----
* cite journal | author=Counihan, J. | title=Mrs Ella Armitage, John Horace Round, G. T. Clark and early Norman castles | journal=Anglo-Norman Studies | volume=8 | year=1985 | pages=73–87
*James, B. Ll. (2004) " [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5461 Clark, George Thomas (1809–1898)] ", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, accessed 21 August 2007 ODNBsub
* cite book | author=Jones, E. | title=A History of GKN, 1: Innovation and Enterprise, 1759–1918 | year=1987 | id=ISBN 0333345940 | publisher=MacMillan | location=Basingstoke
*Lewis, M. J. (1983) "G. T. Clark and the Dowlais Iron Company: an entrepreneurial study", MSc Econ diss., U. Wales
* cite book | author=Owen, J. A. | title=The History of the Dowlais Iron Works, 1759–1970 | year=1977 | id=ISBN 090343427X | location=Newport| publisher=Starling Press
* cite web | author=Randall, H. J. | title=Clark, George Thomas (1809-1898) | url=http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-CLAR-THO-1809.html | work=Welsh Biography Online | publisher=National Library of Wales | accessdate=2007-08-22 | year=2007
*Williams, L. J. "Clark, George Thomas", in cite book | author=Jeremy, D. J. (ed.) | title=Dictionary of Business Biography | edition=5 vols. | year=1984–6