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{{Short description|British civil servant in India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}

[[File:Geoffrey Rothe Clarke.jpg|thumb|Geoffrey Rothe Clarke in 1924]]
'''Sir Geoffrey Rothe Clarke''', CSI, OBE (1 July 1871 – 1 October 1950) was a senior civil servant in [[British India]] from 1903 to 1925, and thereafter a leading member of British industry until his death, including during [[World War II]].

== Early life ==
Geoffrey Rothe Clarke was born in Midnapore, Bengal, on 1 July 1871.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/|title=India Births and Baptisms|website=www.familysearch.org}}</ref> His father, George Richard Clarke of Waterford,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=16 July 1842|title='Notices'|journal=Waterford Chronicle}}</ref> Ireland, managed indigo plantations in West Bengal,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Geoffrey Rothe Clarke|journal=Thacker's Indian Directory|volume=1866-67}}</ref> while his schoolteacher mother, Margaret Elizabeth ''née'' Brunskill of Mountmellick, Ireland, a keen artist,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukauctioneers.com/auction_catalogue.cfm?M-E-CLARKE-BRITISH-19TH-CENTURY-VIEW-OF-THE-OLD-MACKINNON-S-BREWERY-MUSSOORIE-INDIA-DECEMBER-1888-SIGNED-ON-THE-REVERSE-M-E-CLARKE-WATERCOLOUR-31-X-43CM&itemID=20E9CB0FD7D62EF5DFE4FECEFF590BECEC2CA9C3&auction=21E8C306D4&showLots=50&sortBy=lotsort&lotView=list&imagesOnly=N|title=UK Auctioneers.com|access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref> became headmistress of the Cainesville school at Mussoorie, India.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Geoffrey Rothe Clarke|journal=Thacker's Indian Directory|volume=1895-96}}</ref>

Clarke completed his secondary education at the Corrig School, Kingstown, Ireland, that was run by an uncle.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pine|first1=L. G.|title=Burkes' Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland.|date=1958|publisher=Burke’s Peerage Ltd.|location=London|page=119}}</ref> At the age of 19, Clarke entered [[Trinity College Dublin]], commencing a four-year course in Classics and French on 10 October 1890.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Trinity College Dublin archives|journal=Trinity College Dublin Archives}}</ref>

Clarke was the third of five children; his older sister Letitia Marion Dallas (alias Miss Darragh) became a well-known stage actress in Dublin, Manchester and London,<ref>{{cite web|title=Miss Darragh|url=https://shakespeare.emory.edu/miss-darragh/|website=Shakespeare & the Players|date=31 July 2015 |access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref> while his younger brother Reginald joined the Indian Police in 1900, rising to become Chief Commissioner of Calcutta and receiving a knighthood in 1922. Geoffrey and Reginald were among the few civil servants of that time who reached the top of the Indian bureaucracy without an English public school education.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=21 July 1925|title='Ditchers Diary'|journal=Capital (Calcutta)}}</ref>

== Career in the Indian Civil Service ==
Clarke was accepted into the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] (ICS) in 1895 after passing the ICS competitive entrance examination.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Who's Who|year=1948}}</ref> His first posting was to the Province of [[Bihar and Orissa Province|Bihar and Orissa]] as a District Magistrate. In 1903, he was transferred on promotion to the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department as Director General for the Punjab Province, followed by similar and higher grade posts in [[Madras]], [[Allahabad]], [[Simla]] and [[Calcutta]]. He became involved in the amalgamation and rapid expansion of India's post and telephone services.
[[File:First Official Airmail Flight by Humber-Sommer biplane - India 1911.jpg|thumb|First Official Airmail Flight by Humber-Sommer biplane India 1911]]

In February 1911, he authorised the world's first official aerial post, flying 6500 mail items five miles from [[Allahabad]] across the confluence of the [[Ganges]] and [[Yamuna]] rivers to [[Naini, Prayagraj|Naini]] railway junction for onward transit. The aircraft was a biplane flown by the French pilot, [[Henri Pequet]]. The flight was one of a number of demonstrations given by the Humber Company at The United Provinces Exhibition. A surcharge of six Annas per item raised charitable funds in aid of Holy Trinity Church Allahabad constructing a hostel for Indian students.<ref>{{Cite journal|year=2011|title=Stanley Gibbons Stamp Monthly|journal=Centenary of the World's First Official Post}}</ref> The Indian Post Office issued special stamps commemorating the event in 1961, 1986, and 2011.

Clarke was recalled to London in 1916 to serve under [[David Lloyd George]] in the [[Minister of Munitions|Ministry of Munitions]] in order to advise on overcoming the weapons supply crisis in Britain during World War I.<ref name=":0" /> He was sent on a special deputation to the United States and Canada to negotiate procurement contracts, and was made an [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] in 1918 for this service.<ref name=OBE/>

On return to India in March 1917, Clarke was appointed Postmaster General of Bengal and Assam.<ref name="AnAppreciation"/> A year later, he was promoted to Director General of Posts and Telegraphs for British India (including Aden, Burma and Ceylon) as well as a member of the Legislative Council of the [[Governor-General of India]].<ref name=":0" /> Over his seven-year tenure of the Post Office, he oversaw an increase in postal, telephone and telegraph traffic. By obtaining additional investment funding, wireless and telephone infrastructure were installed and usage, especially long distance, grew rapidly. For employees, no distinction of race was made in promotion or pay, such that by the end of his tenure, most higher appointments in the Post Office were held by Indian nationals, including his successor, GP Roy.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Sir G. Clarke. Farewell Tribute to Telegraphist|journal=Englishman (India)|page=17 July 1925}}</ref>
[[File:GR Clarke International Postal Conference in Stockholm.jpg|thumb|Geoffrey Clarke (second left) with HK Raha and PW Mukerji, Indian delegates to the 1924 Stockholm International Postal Congress]]
Under his guidance, the Postal Department was the first government department in India to grant official recognition to the organisation of its workers in independent trade unions.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A Sympathetic Chief. Farewell to Sir G. Clarke|journal=The Times of India|page=8 August 1925}}</ref> By 1925, the All India Postal Staff union had 70,000 members, and its elected President for that year, [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], played a key role in the enactment of the Trade Union Act of 1926, whereby the trade union movement of the subcontinent, for the first time, acquired legal cover for unionising unorganised workers.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Proud for the TU movement of Pakistan, Father of the Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as Trade Union Leader|url=http://pwf.org.pk/quid_tu_leader.htm|website=Pakistan Workers Federation|access-date=23 February 2014|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714150719/http://pwf.org.pk/quid_tu_leader.htm|archive-date=14 July 2014}}</ref>

Clarke represented the Government of India at the International Postal Congresses held in [[Madrid]] (1920),<ref name="AnAppreciation">{{cite journal|title=Sir Geoffrey Clarke. An Appreciation|journal=The Pioneer Mail (India)|date=7 August 1925}}</ref> [[Stockholm]] (1924),<ref name="AnAppreciation"/> and [[Paris]] (1925). At Stockholm he defeated a resolution to deprive India of its separate vote as a member of the International Postal Union. He was knighted in 1925.<ref name=":0"/>

== Career in British Industry and during World War II ==
After retirement from Imperial Service in 1926, Clarke became a director on the boards of [[P&O (company)|P&O]], [[British-India Steam Navigation Company]] and the Anglo-Iranian oil companies, and in 1934 became chairman of The Calcutta Tramways Company.<ref>{{cite journal|title='News of the Day'|journal=The Age (Australia)|date=11 January 1939|page=7}}</ref>

On 1 January 1926, Clarke was employed by the [[Enderby's Wharf|Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company]] (Telcon) as joint managing director.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Telegraph_Construction_and_Maintenance_Co|title=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History}}</ref> Although the firm had just received a large order to manufacture and lay a new 3500 nautical mile telegraph cable under the Pacific Ocean, its future was challenged by competition from short-wave radio and the economic depression of the early 1930s. In 1932, he was appointed sole Managing Director, reorganising and concentrating production facilities. Commercial prospects for the company improved when the product base was broadened to include the manufacture of power cables, high frequency cables and magnetic alloys. Clarke was largely responsible for the decision in 1935 to lay the first [[transatlantic telephone cable]]. In the same year, the Company's submarine interests were amalgamated with Siemens Brothers on an equal basis by the formation of Submarine Cables Ltd.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History}}</ref>

As president of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce from 1936, Clarke made an analysis of the effect of the newly started rearmament program on the structure of British Industry. In 1938, he became a member of the Commonwealth Economic Committee, and of Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s Advisory Panel of Industrialists on Rearmament.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary. Sir Geoffrey Clarke|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=13 October 1950|page=5}}</ref> None of the members received payment for their services, but they caused considerable interest from the Americans who anticipated large contracts.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Orlando Morning Sentinel|date=9 January 1939}}</ref> Clarke was deputy chairman (1929–1931), chairman (1931–1934),<ref>{{cite journal|title=Imperial Air Mail Services|journal=Flight|date=21 June 1934|page=607}}</ref> and president of the [[London Chamber of Commerce & Industry|London Chamber of Commerce]] (1940–1943). He was President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain (1936–1939) and a member of The Council of Foreign Bondholders.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:A_section_of_Pluto_pipe_successively_stripped_away.jpg|thumb|A section of Pluto pipe successively stripped away to reveal the series of layers]]
[[File:A ‘Conundrum’ being prepared for winding pipe.jpg|thumb|A ‘Conundrum’ being prepared for winding pipe]]

With his background knowledge of underwater cabling manufacture, Clarke become a member of a British government committee charged with solving the problem of supplying the advancing Allied forces with petrol, while avoiding enemy attack and adverse weather. The answer was the [[Operation Pluto]] project, initiated by [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Mountbatten]] in 1942. In great secrecy, the committee coordinated the design and manufacture of several hundred miles of flexible pressure resistant piping, through which petrol could be pumped and transported across the English Channel. The pipes were wound in enormous coils called "Conundrums" after their shape, and laid by specially adapted ships. Between August 1944 and May 1945, over 172 million gallons of petrol were delivered to allied forces in France through the PLUTO pipes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Operation Pluto|url=https://d-dayrevisited.co.uk/d-day-history/planning-and-preparation/operation-pluto/}}</ref>

Clarke, who rarely took holidays, retired from his business activities and other interests when forced to do by ill health shortly before his death.<ref>Comment by Michael John Clarke, grandson to Geoffrey Rothe Clarke, November 2017</ref>

== Personal life ==
Clarke married Hilda Geraldine Seymour on 3 February 1899 at St Peter's Church, Fort William, Calcutta. She was the eldest daughter of Colonel Dr. Charles Seymour of the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]]. They outlived three of their five children, and three of their nine grandchildren.

As passengers on [[BOAC Flight 777]], Clarke's only daughter Rotha (Hutcheon) and her two young daughters were killed by enemy action over the [[Bay of Biscay]] on 1 June 1943. Other passengers included the actor ''[[Leslie Howard (actor)|Leslie Howard]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&context=fac_pm|title=Digital Commons @ Georgia Law}}</ref> Clarke subsequently commissioned a stained glass window at St. Michael's church, [[Llan Ffestiniog]], Wales, to remember the women and children killed during World War II.
[[File:Ffestiniogwindow.jpg|thumb|Detail of memorial window commissioned by Geoffrey Rothe Clarke in 1944 for St Michael's church, Llan Ffestiniog, to commemorate the civilian casualties of World War 2. The window erroneously depicts a De Havilland DH.95 Flamingo, rather than the DC3 of Flight 777]]

Clarke died of cancer on 1 October 1950 at his home in [[Hove]], Sussex, UK, aged 79. A memorial service was held at [[St Mary le Strand]]. His widow, Hilda, died on 24 June 1966, also in Hove.

=== Awards and honours ===
* 1918 Officer of the British Empire<ref name=OBE>{{London Gazette|issue=30460 |date=4 January 1918 |page=376|supp=y}}</ref>
* 1921 Companion of the [[Order of the Star of India|Star of India]]<ref name="AnAppreciation"/>
* 1923 Serbian [[Order of St. Sava]]<ref name="AnAppreciation"/>
* 1925 [[Knight Bachelor]]<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33020 |date=13 February 1925 |page=1070}}</ref>

== Publications ==
* ''The Outcasts, Being a Brief History of the Maghaya Doms'' Thacker, Spink & Co 1903
* ''The Post Office of India and its Story'' The Bodley Head 1923

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Geoffrey Rothe}}
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:People from Midnapore]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College Dublin]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Sava]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]

Geoffrey Rothe Clarke - Revision history

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