xlix 



CHARLES BARON" CLARKE, 1832—1906. 



Charles Baron Clarke was born at Andover, Hampshire, on June 17, 1832. 

 He was the eldest son of Turner Poulter Clarke, J.P., and Elizabeth Parker. 

 His father was the son of Turner Poulter Clarke and Elizabeth Baron ; his 

 mother was the daughter of James Parker and Elizabeth Ward. One of his 

 grand-uncles, Charles Baron, an enthusiastic gardener, was the founder of the 

 Agricultural Society of Saffron Walden. Baron's sister, Clarke's paternal 

 grandmother, shared her brother's love of plants ; three of her sons owed 

 largely to her influence a taste for scientific enquiry. These were Clarke's 

 uncles, Joseph, a careful antiquarian, who founded the Saffron Walden 

 Museum ; Joshua, an able field botanist and a recognised authority on the 

 flora of Essex ; and Benjamin^ a systematic botanist of decided originality, 

 spoken of by Bentham as " one of our most careful observers." Clarke 

 shared the tastes of two of his uncles ; he took, in addition, a deep interest 

 in social science. The latter taste he seems to have inherited from his 

 maternal grandfather ; his mathematical powers appear to have been derived 

 from his father and his paternal grandfather. 



As a boy, Clarke was sent. to the preparatory school of Mr. Tomlinson, at 

 Salisbury. From this he went to King's College School, London, where he 

 passed through the higher forms and then attended classes in the College 

 before proceeding to Cambridge. He entered at Trinity in 1852 ; graduated 

 B.A. and was bracketed Third Wrangler in 1856; was elected a Fellow of 

 Queen's in 1857 ; was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1858, and 

 appointed Mathematical Lecturer of his College in the same year ; and took 

 the degree of M.A. in 1859. He continued a resident Fellow of Queen's till 

 December, 1865, when he was appointed to the Bengal Education Depart- 

 ment. 



On reaching India in 1866, Clarke was at first attached to the Presidency 

 College, Calcutta, but was soon appointed Inspector of Schools in the Eastern 

 Division of Bengal, with his headquarters at Dacca. Early in 1869, Dr. T. 

 Anderson, Superintendent of the Royal Botanical Garden at Calcutta and of 

 Cinchona Cultivation in Bengal, was invalided to Europe ; on Anderson's recom- 

 mendation Clarke was appointed to officiate in both posts. Towards the end 

 of 1870, Anderson died in Scotland, but Clarke was not relieved of his duties 

 in the Botanical Department till July, 1871, when, on the arrival of Dr. (now 

 Sir) G-. King, who had been appointed Anderson's successor, he was able to 

 revert to his substantive appointment at Dacca. In 1874, Clarke was 

 transferred to the Presidency Division of Bengal, with his headquarters at 

 Calcutta, and in 1875 he was again transferred, as Inspector of Schools, to 

 the Northern Division, with his headquarters at Darjeeling. 



In 1877 Clarke came to England on two years' furlough ; when this 



vol. lxxix. — b. e 



