Contact Artefacts
please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.

CLARKE, John Daniel

Born: 1881
Died: 1947 11 05

Architect


Was articled in 1895 to Munsden & Henderson in London and continued his professional education in 1898 in the offices of the crown surveyor, Arthur Green, FRIBA. Clarke attended classes at the Regent Street Polytechnic. In 1901 he entered WT Walther's office in London and, sometime before 1903, came to South Africa. He was living in Bloemfontein in 1903 when he was elected an Associate member of the RIBA and according to Gray (1985:142), assisted Herbert Baker in the building of Grey College and the Grey University College at Bloemfontein. Clarke stated (FRIBA nomination papers 1921) that he worked in South Africa for the PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT in Bloemfontein (1906) before joining Baker's team in 1909 on the preparation of the drawings for the Union Buildings in Pretoria. By 1910 Clarke had returned to England where he set up practice in Eastbourne, Sussex, and designed a series of country houses, mostly in Kent and Sussex. Gray (1985:142) comments that he sometimes 'gave his English houses exotic reminders of South African days, such as an arcaded stoep.' He was in partnership with DG Tanner in 1910 and with AF de P Worsfield in 1928.

ARIBA Bloemfontein 1903; FRIBA 1921. (FRIBA nom papers (1921) 1731; Picton-Seymour 1977; RIBA biog file; RIBA Jnl Dec 1947:86 obit; SAAE&S Jnl Aug 1906:164; Gray 1985:142; The Builder 27 Nov 1947 obit) Publ: Modernising old country houses, CL Jun 12th 1920:841-2

All truncated references not fully cited in 'References' are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.