Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke

Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke (6 March 1908 – 27 January 1978) was a priest and architectural historian.[1][2][3][4][5] He served as Secretary of the Oxford Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, a member of the Council for the Care of Churches, on the advisory board for the Care of Redundant Churches and was a member of the Westminster Abbey Architectural Advisory Panel.[6]

Life

Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke was born on 6 March 1908, the son of the Rev. W. K. L. Clarke.[1] He was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead and St John's College, Durham.[1] After Durham he trained to be a priest at Cuddesdon Theological College and was ordained in 1932.[1] He served as curate at Coulsdon, Monmouth, Watford and Oxford before being appointed Vicar of Knowl Hill, Berkshire, a position he held from 1944 to 1974.[1]

Clarke and his brother took an early interest in church architecture and were encouraged by their father to record details of any church they visited.[3] Starting as a schoolboy hobby, during his life he prepared over thirty one handwritten books accompanied by nineteen boxes of documents and postcards from churches he had visited.[3] He is reputed to have prepared card indexes on two thirds of the 16,000 churches in Great Britain.[3]

Clarke’s main interest was Victorian church architecture and the gothic revival.[3] His passion for the genre led him to become a writer of books on the subject and he is notable for his book, Church Builders of the 19th Century, which was published in 1938 when Victorian architecture was somewhat ridiculed.[7]

Clarke contributed to the Collins Guide to English Parish Churches by Sir John Betjeman and also wrote about Anglican church architecture outside the British Isles,[8] the Parish Churches of London,[9] The Building of the Eighteenth Century Church and, with Sir John Betjeman, English Churches.[10]

In 1970, Clarke was appointed an honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.[1] On retirement, he concentrated his energies on church architecture and preservation, serving on a number of administrative bodies.[1][4]

Clarke died on 27 January at the age of 69.[1] In 1939 Clarke married Eileen Noel Coates and was survived by her, one son and two daughters.[1]

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References
  1. Obituary in The Times, The Rev B. F. L. Clarke, January 31, 1978, p.18
  2. "Who's Who and Who Was Who: For autobiographical information on the noteworthy & famous". Oxford University Press – via Oxford University Press.
  3. "Priest". www.churchtimes.co.uk.
  4. "Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke (1907-1978), historian of ecclesiastical architecture: notebooks and papers". www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  5. Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (February 26, 2015). "The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture". OUP Oxford – via Google Books.
  6. "CalmView: Overview". archives.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk.
  7. Clarke, Basil Fulford Lowther (July 28, 1969). "Church builders of the nineteenth century: a study of the Gothic Revival in England". Augustus M. Kelly – via Open WorldCat.
  8. Clarke, Basil Fulford Lowther (July 28, 1958). "Anglican cathedrals outside the British Isles". S.P.C.K. – via Open WorldCat.
  9. Clarke, Basil Fulford Lowther (July 28, 1966). "Parish churches of London" – via Open WorldCat.
  10. Clarke, Basil Fulford Lowther; Betjeman, John (July 28, 1964). "English churches". Vista Books – via Open WorldCat.
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