45 Facts About Marshal Clarke

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Marshal James Clarke was a British colonial administrator and an officer of the Royal Artillery.

Marshal Clarke was the first Resident Commissioner in Basutoland from 1884 to 1893; Resident Commissioner in Zululand from 1893 to 1898; and, following the botched Jameson Raid, the first Resident Commissioner in Southern Rhodesia from 1898 to 1905.

In Zululand, Clarke granted considerable authority and special judicial functions to the hereditary chiefs; and was commended by Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson, Governor of Natal, for his action in the face of potential famine.

Marshal Clarke recommended to the Imperial Government the return from exile of Dinuzulu, the paramount chief.

Marshal Clarke married Annie Stacy Lloyd, daughter of Major General Banastyre Pryce Lloyd in 1880 and had three children.

Marshal Clarke died suddenly of pneumonia in his home country of Ireland.

Marshal James Clarke was their eldest son, born on 24 October 1841.

Marshal Clarke was born in Tipperary, educated at a private school in Dublin and studied at Trinity College, Dublin.

Marshal Clarke went on to study at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in February 1863.

Marshal Clarke served in India, where he lost an arm to a tiger.

Marshal Clarke was Aide-de-Camp to Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the Special Commissioner of South Africa in 1876 on his mission to the Transvaal.

Marshal Clarke was appointed Special Commissioner to South Africa in 1876.

Marshal Clarke was Political Officer and Special Commissioner of Lydenburg in 1877.

Marshal Clarke was brevetted Major in April 1880 in recognition of his services during operations in South Africa.

Marshal Clarke was seconded to the Sultan of Turkey's army in command of a regiment of the Egyptian Gendarmerie in 1882.

Marshal Clarke retired from the military in March 1883 with the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

Marshal Clarke was appointed the first Resident Commissioner in Basutoland and took office on 16 March 1884.

James Bryce noted in his Impressions, after his tour of Southern Africa in 1897, that Marshal Clarke combined tactfulness with firmness in order to inspire goodwill towards the British government.

Marshal Clarke's policy was to reinstate the tribal institutions and to govern through the recognised chiefs, amongst whom Letsie, son of Moshesh, was paramount.

Sir Marshal Clarke succeeded Sir Melmoth Osborn as Resident Commissioner and Chief Magistrate in Zululand in June 1893.

Marshal Clarke ultimately succeeded in driving out Zibhebhu with the help of Transvaal Boers.

Marshal Clarke gave himself up in November 1888, and he and his uncles Ndabuko and Tshingana were found guilty of high treason in April 1889 and exiled to St Helena.

On her return to Zululand in August 1893, Marshal Clarke invited her to his residence in Etshowe.

Unlike Osborn, who treated Colenso's presence at the trials in 1888 as an affront, Marshal Clarke took up Colenso's cause and recommended to the Colonial Office in London that Dinuzulu and his uncles be allowed to return from exile, having been sufficiently punished for his supposed offences.

Marshal Clarke, persuaded by Colenso, argued that Dinuzulu would not cause further trouble so long as the policy of fomenting intertribal strife were discontinued and Dinuzulu be appointed induna.

Marshal Clarke began the process for the return of Dinuzulu and sought to harness the authority of the Zulu leader to the administration.

Marshal Clarke's tenure marked a difference in policy: instead of trying to divide and rule and undermine the power of the hereditary chiefs, he granted considerable authority to them.

Marshal Clarke applied a similar approach to that of his previous work in Basutoland.

However, when Marshal Clarke was appointed Resident Commissioner in Rhodesia in 1898, Charles Saunders replaced him and he bowed to pressure from settlers and officials to minimise Dinuzulu's influence over the Zulu people, especially during the Second Boer War.

Marshal Clarke had to deal with four natural disasters during his tenure.

Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, offered the role to Marshal Clarke, whose impressive prior administrative career was an indication of the importance being placed on the role.

Graham Bower, the imperial secretary, wrote recommending him for the role: "Marshal Clarke is far and away the best man in this country".

Marshal Clarke was in post from 1898 to 1905, reporting directly to Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner for Southern Africa based in Johannesburg, who in turn reported to the Colonial Office in London.

Marshal Clarke's role was to safeguard the interests of the natives and to call on the High Commissioner for interference where he saw fit.

Marshal Clarke's view was that a mutually beneficial relationship between capital and labour was possible through market forces alone, without additional pressure.

Marshal Clarke was particularly concerned with the possibility of Africans avenging their recent defeat in the Second Matabele War by joining forces against the government.

Marshal Clarke took up the cause: 'This indicates the necessity of the organisation of an Association for bringing those wanting labour and those seeking employment into contact and prevent, what I have myself seen, gangs of destitute natives wandering about the country.

Marshal Clarke was a critic of migrant labour schemes, which were designed to attract foreign labour to Rhodesia, and in 1900 he defended the rights of indigenous labour against infringement by foreign Africans from Mozambique, Nyasaland, Zambia and South Africa.

Marshal Clarke dismissed the demands, arguing that 'the introduction of large numbers of Asiatics.

Marshal Clarke argued that most Rhodesians were opposed to the introduction of Chinese labour.

Marshal Clarke appears to have had respect for Clarke, although he seems to have resented his influence at the Colonial Office, denying him an increase in salary or an official secretary.

Southern Rhodesian natives have surely had much in past years to thank a succession of Imperial Representatives for, Resident Commissioners, to whom the first of their number, Sir Marshal Clarke, handed on a fine tradition.

Marshal Clarke was invested as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in April 1880, and promoted to Knight Commander in 1886.

Marshal Clarke was granted authority to wear the insignia of the Third Class of the Order of the Medjidieh in November 1883 conferred on him by Tewfik Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, as authorised by Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, in recognition of his services in the employ of the Khedive.

Marshal Clarke died suddenly on 1 April 1909 of pneumonia at The Lodge, Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland.