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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Short description|British missionary}}
'''Robert Clark''' (1825–1900), and his colleague [[Thomas Henry Fitzpatrick]],<ref>[http://bartonhistory.wikispaces.com/Rev.+Thomas+Henry+Fitzpatrick+(d.1866) Rev. Thomas Henry Fitzpatrick (d.1866)], Barton Family history</ref> were the first [[English people|English]] [[Church Mission Society]] (CMS) missionaries in the [[Punjab region|Punjab]]. Clark was the first missionary to the [[Afghanistan|Afghans]], and was the first agent of the Church to enter the city of [[Leh]].<ref name="R1">{{cite book |last=Dawson |first= E.C. |chapter=Mrs Robert Clark : A missionary pioneer of the Punjab |title= Heroines Of Missionary Adventure |publisher= Kessinger Publishing |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=x4FbgSBa7IkC&pg=PA26 |date=March 2005 |pages=26–40 |isbn= 9781417958979}}</ref><ref name="R2">{{cite book |last= Anderson |first= Gerald H. |title= Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions |publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |page=136 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oQ8BFk9K0ToC&pg=PA136 |date=September 1999 |isbn= 9780802846808}}</ref>

He was the founder of the CMS mission station in [[Amritsar]], the CMS [[Afghanistan|Afghan]] mission station in [[Peshawar]], and the [[Kashmir]] mission – especially Medical missionary work to open a [[dispensary]] in [[Srinagar]] and [[Kashmir]].<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/>

==Early life==
Clark was born on 4 July at [[Harmston]], [[Lincolnshire]], [[England]]. He was reared in an [[evangelical]] home, and trained in [[commerce]] in [[Germany]]. He served with a [[Liverpool]]-merchant firm before his call to the ministry in 1844. He was educated at [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]]. Having decided to prepare for the [[Ordination|ministry]], he studied at the [[University of Cambridge]]; he was amongst the [[Wrangler (University of Cambridge)|Wranglers]] of 1850. He was ordained by the CMS and sent to India at the age of twenty-six, when [[United States|American]] [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] at [[Ludhiana]] urged the CMS to join the work. In 1851 he sailed to [[Calcutta]] (present [[Kolkata]]), and from there went to Punjab.<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/><ref name="lyle">{{cite book |last= Vander Werff|first= Lyle L.|title= Christian Mission to Muslims |publisher= William Carey Library |url=https://archive.org/details/christianmission0000vand |url-access= registration|year= 1977 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/christianmission0000vand/page/52 52]–73 |isbn=9780878083206}}</ref>

==Career==
===Punjab (1851–1854)===
As there were no dictionaries and grammars existing in Punjab when Clark arrived, everything had been made from the beginning to assist in missionary and administrative activities. Accordingly, a school was opened up for [[Sikhs]], [[Hindu]]s, and [[Muslim]]s. He founded the first CMS mission station in Amritsar in 1852, and the first preaching of the [[Gospel]] was undertaken in the Amritsar bazaar on 20 October 1852.<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/>

As an [[Evangelism|evangelist]], he pioneered in Punjab and left an impressive record. His foremost principle was that the [[evangelism]] was best carried out by national workers. By 1854, he [[Baptism|baptised]] almost twenty-three, who were soon utilised in the field of evangelism. Accordingly, Amritsar's School founded in 1852, Amristar's College founded in 1862, and Christian Girl's Boarding School did graduate adequate number of qualified [[Christianity|Christian]] workers for that purpose. He knew well, how to train the [[Pastor]]'s and then to step back while delegating responsibilities to them.<ref name="lyle"/>

Clark founded the first Christian village in Punjab, and obtained 1,900 acres (760 hectares) of land from the Government. The village was named "[[Clarkabad]]" in his honour.<ref>[http://www.maplandia.com/pakistan/punjab/kasur/clarkabad/ Clarkabad Map], www.maplandia.com</ref>

===Peshawar (1854–1864)===
In 1854 he founded the CMS Afghan mission, the first European mission to the Afghans, in Peshawar—the doorway to [[Kabul]] and [[Central Asia]]. To achieve this, he crossed the [[Indus River]], explored [[Kashmir]] and [[Ladakh]], and penetrated some way into the [[Himalayas]] and western [[Tibet]]. At Peshawar, he worked with [[Karl Gottlieb Pfander]], a [[Basel Mission]] missionary in Central Asia. He was sent back to England before the outbreak of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]] and the Sepoy Mutiny.<ref name="R1"/><ref name="lyle"/>

While in [[London]], he married Elizabeth Mary Browne, daughter of a [[Scottish people|Scottish]] doctor who retired on 14 May 1858 after forty-four years of service in Calcutta. Elizabeth had corresponded with Clark as a "Collector" for the Peshawar mission. She was a linguist with experience in the [[Sanskrit]], [[Urdu]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], and [[Italian language]]s. She also worked as a ''Sister of St. John'' at the [[King's College Hospital]]. Both sailed back to India and joined in Peshawar station in 1858.<ref name="R1"/> In Peshawar they adopted an orphan baby [[Henry Martyn Clark]] born 1857, adopted 1859, later to study medicine at Edinburgh University and become a medical missionary in Kashmir.{{fact|date=February 2022}}

In 1863 at the Punjab missionary conference, Clark advocated the formation of the Punjab Medical Missionary Society. It was subsequently formed at [[Lahore]] on 24 January 1864, to work with the [[Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society]],<ref>[http://www.emms.org/about-us/origins-and-background The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121210024846/http://www.emms.org/about-us/origins-and-background |date=10 December 2012 }}, Origins and Background, www.emms.org</ref> especially in the valley of Kashmir.<ref name="lyle"/>

===Kashmir (1864–1868)===
Accordingly, Clark and his wife ventured into Kashmir and opened a dispensary. Elizabeth started as a doctor, though she was not a qualified doctor as such, only having worked as a ''Sister'' before; however, she knew more than the native [[Unani|hakims]] - [[Herbalist]]s. Crowds, as many as hundreds of women, who would have died of simple illness, came to consult her, and Clark started his career as a teacher. Clark started the Kashmir mission in 1864. The first attempt at ''Medical Mission'' work had met with great opposition.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://ladakhstudies.org/resources/News/JMB111.pdf |title= Arthur Neve (1859 – 1919) and a Mission Hospital in Srinagar, Kashmi |quote= In 1864 Robert Clark (1825– 1900) of the senior Christian Missionary Society in the Punjab with his wife crossed the mountain passes into the far-famed valley of Kashmir during the hot season and with characteristic energy and without seeking anybody’s help in 1865 quietly opened a dispensary to be run in Srinagar by his wife on her own |publisher= ladakhstudies.org/ |access-date= April 23, 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160305064420/http://ladakhstudies.org/resources/News/JMB111.pdf |archive-date= March 5, 2016 }}</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2022}}

Elizabeth's success as a doctor in Kashmir provided a "key" to Clark to unlock the minds of natives; subsequently he initiated the movement that resulted in the wide establishment of "Medical missions" throughout India. According to Clark:<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ladakhstudies.org/resources/News/JMB111.pdf |title= Arthur Neve (1859 – 1919) and a Mission Hospital in Srinagar, Kashmi |quote= In 1864 Robert Clark (1825– 1900) of the senior Christian Missionary Society in the Punjab with his wife crossed the mountain passes into the far-famed valley of Kashmir during the hot season and with characteristic energy and without seeking anybody’s help in 1865 quietly opened a dispensary to be run in Srinagar by his wife on her own. She was not a qualified doctor but she seemed to know more than the native Hakims and soon a hundred patients were attending each day. |publisher= NY Times Co. |access-date= April 22, 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160305064420/http://ladakhstudies.org/resources/News/JMB111.pdf |archive-date= March 5, 2016 }}</ref>{{Cquote|Medical Missions are amongst the most important means of evangelising India; and the attention of all Societies should be more distinctly drawn that has hitherto been the case to the opportunities which they afford.<ref name="lyle"/>
}}

===England (1868–1876)===
Clark and his wife returned to England in 1868.<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/>

===Punjab (1876–1900)===
They both returned to India in 1876, this time landing in [[Bombay]] (present [[Mumbai]]).<ref name="R1"/><ref name="R2"/>

He became the first chairman of the Punjab Native Church council when the "[[Lahore]] Diocese" was established in 1877. He also served as the first secretary of the CMS mission between 1878 and 1898. He served as the first secretary of the [[Church of England]] [[Zenana]] Missionary Society between 1878 and 1900.

Clark died on 16 May 1900 at [[Kasauli]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], at the age of seventy-seven.<ref name="R2"/>

==Publications==
* ''The missions of the Church Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in the Punjab and Sindh'', edited and revised and by Robert Maconachie, Published London: Church Missionary Society, 1904.<ref name="R2"/><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.ampltd.co.uk/collections_az/cms-3-13/contents-of-reels.aspx |title=REEL 168 |work=Section III: Central Records, Part 13: CMS Collection of Lives of Missionaries held at the Church Missionary Society Library |quote=REEL 168 refers to ''The missions of the Church Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in the Punjab and Sindh'', by the late Rev. Robert Clark, edited and revised by Robert Maconachie. vii, 280p |publisher= CMS Archive, www.ampltd.co.uk |access-date= 22 April 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles201104.html |title= Blind and Sighted Pioneer Teachers in 19th Century China and India (revised edition) |author = M. Miles |quote= Footnote [224] refers to: Robert Clark (1904) ''The Missions of the Church Missionary Society and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in the Punjab and Sindh'', edited and revised by Robert Maconachie, London: Church Missionary Society. |access-date= 22 April 2012 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Zenana#Zenana missions|Zenana Mission]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.milligazette.com/Archives/2004/16-31Jul04-Print-Edition/163107200455.htm Christian mission in Kashmir], Book Review by Yoginder Sikand, The Milli Gazette
* [http://www.ampltd.co.uk/digital_guides/cms_section_vi_part_6/contents-of-reels.aspx Rev Robert Clark 1853-1878], Letters, journals and papers of individual missionaries, catechists and others, CMS Archive, Section VI, Part 6, REEL 120, Ref: C I 1 O 69
* [http://www.ampltd.co.uk/collections_az/cms-6-06/highlights.aspx Rev Robert Clark], CMS Archive, Section VI, Part 6
* [http://anglicanhistory.org/india/stock_beginnings/12.html Chapter XII. The First Medical Missions], [http://anglicanhistory.org/india/stock_beginnings/ "Beginnings in India"] by Eugene Stock. Originally published 1917. Project Canterbury, anglicanhistory.org

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Robert}}
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1900 deaths]]
[[Category:English Anglican missionaries]]
[[Category:Anglican missionaries in India]]
[[Category:19th-century English people]]
[[Category:People from North Kesteven District]]
[[Category:Church Mission Society missionaries]]
[[Category:British missionaries in India]]

Robert Clark (missionary) - Revision history

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