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His father
William Robinson Clark (1829-1912) |
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| William Lyon Clark c. 1913 |
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| William Lyon Clark was the first son of William
Robinson Clark and Elizabeth Jane Higgins. He had
five sisters and five brothers. |
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| He was christened by his father on the 7th March 1858
at St Matthias, Birmingham, England. |
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| He changed his name by deed poll to Lyon-Clark on the
4th April 1911 thus becoming William Lyon Lyon-Clark |
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| He married three times and had in total six sons, five
by his first wife and one by his second wife. |
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| He is believed to have spent much of his early life
abroad, in India and South Africa. |
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First marriage of William Lyon Clark |
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| His first wife Ada Constance Sophia Hennessey, as a
young woman. |
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William Lyon Clark in the dress uniform
of the North Devon Hussars in 1906. |
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Ballinlough Castle, Co. Meath, Ireland,
where William and his sons, Arthur, Hugh and Basil, stayed
after retuning from India, around 1904. |
| [Ballinlough Castle] |
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| Ballinlough Castle in 2017 |
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| William Lyon Clark c. 1913 |
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| In 1880, aged 22, he went to India and managed a tea
estate in Badapur, Assam. |
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| He married his first wife Ada Constance Sophia Hennessey
in Bengal, India in 1884 and they had five childen. They
divorced in 1896 and William subsequently took some of
his sons to Ireland where they lived in the early 1900's. |
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| After his divorce from Ada Constance Sophia Hennessey
he returned to England. All three sons may have detoured
to South Africa as Arthur and Basil did. A third son,
Hugh Mordaunt Lyon Clark, emigrated to Argentina to work
for a railway company. There he married and established
a family in Argentina and used the name Lyon-Clark. |
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Sons of William Lyon Clark |
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| It is not presently known what happened to sons
Douglas and Alfred, and they may have died at a
young age possibly in a cholera outbreak |
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Arthur Gordon Lyon Clark |
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| Arthur Gordon Lyon Clark c.1909 |
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| Arthur who was born in India in 1886 moved to South Africa
probably as part of the British Army in the early
1900's. Arthur married three times, firstly in Cape
Town, South Africa to Edith Florence Lee who was
a dancer on tour with the famous Gaiety Company. |
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| His first wife, Edith Florence Lee |
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| They had a daughter, Elizabeth Margaret Lyon Clark,
who was born in 1912. |
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Elizabth Margaret Lyon Clark c.1942,
the daughter of Arthur Gordon Lyon Clark
and Edith Florence Lee. |
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| When war broke out Arthur joined the army and
was sent to German South West Africa (Namiba), then
in Tanzania and finally in Fance until 1916 where
he was gassed. Arthur and Edith divorced in 1919. |
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| In 1921 Arthur married Ethel Madeline Horton in
Dublin in 1921 but they divorced in 1927. They had
no children. |
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| Subsequently Arthur became the manager of a gentlemen's
fishing lodge at Thorney Weir in west London. |
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| When war broke out in 1939 Arthur became an assistant
censor in charge of the transatlantic telephone
service set up to handle secret telephone calls
between Britain and America including calls between
Churchill and Roosevelt. |
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| Colonel Clark is described
in a recent book by Ruth Ive called The Woman Who
Censored Churchill |
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| Arthur married a younger woman, Gwendoline C Smith,
who had worked with him in the secret telephone
service, in 1945. |
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Gwendoline C Smith,
the third wife of Arthur Gordon Lyon Clark.
They married in 1945. |
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| His daughter Elizabeth had not seen him since
1934 and she traced him through the Red Cross to
a hospital where he was being treated for lung trouble
. In 1947. Arthur and his wife travelled from Southampton
to Cape Town and then by rail to Salisbury (now Harare),
Rhodesia where his daughter was living. Athur never
recovered his health and died there in 1950 |
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Hugh Mordaunt Lyon Clark |
| Hugh Mordaunt Lyon Clark, emigrated to Argentina
to work for a railway company in the early 1900's.
There he married and fathered a son called Hugo
Guillermo (William) Lyon Clark in 1917. |
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| This son, Hugh William Lyon-Clark served in the RAF in WW2 at RAF Heaton Park (now a large Manchester park) and Cirencester (now Cotswold Airport). He married in Oldham in 1945 before returning to Argentina. |
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| His family remains in Argentina to the present
day. Information about this family is currently
emerging. |
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Basil Lyon Clark |
| Basil Lyon Clark (by first wife) was killed in
WW1 while serving as a Captain in the Kings African
Rifles and is buried in Dar es Salaam. |
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Second marriage of William Lyon Lyon-Clark |
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His (second) wife
Helen "Nellie" Lyon-Clark (nee Holt)
c.1919 |
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William Lyon-Clark on the River Thames
with his wife Nellie (right) and friend Winifred
Clark (left - no relation). |
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| William Lyon Clark c. 1913 |
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| He changed his name by deed poll to Lyon-Clark on the
4th April 1911 thus becoming William Lyon Lyon-Clark. |
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| He married Helen "Nellie" Holt in 1909 but
they divorced in 1927. |
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| He had one son by this marriage to Helen "Nellie"
Holt, Anthony William Patrick Lyon-Clark who was killed
in France in WW2. |
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His son Anthony William Patrick Lyon-Clark
c.1919 |
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Third marriage of William Lyon Lyon-Clark |
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| He then had a third marriage to Irene Margaret Guy. Irene was an
artist and designer of theatrical costumes. William died in the south
of France in 1934 and Irene in Suffolk, England in 1947, aged 48. |
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The sisters of William Lyon Clark |
| He appeared to have (at least) five sisters:- |
- Katherine Elsie Clark, later Hon Mrs Petre and subsequently Lady Hawtrey
- Margaret Elizabeth Clark, married Alan Summerly Cole,
son of Sir Henry Cole, the first director of the (V&A)
South Kensington Museum.
- Etheldreda Mary Clark (known as Audrey), later Lady Petre
- Hylda or Hilda Frances E Clark, married the exploere Harry De Windt
- Augusta M Clark has now been cnfirmed as the previously
missing daughter.
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The brothers of William Lyon Clark |
Although he had five brothers (and probably two more that died at
birth or at an early age), no significant trace can be found of them after the 1881 census.
His brother Charles (b.1865) was best man at William's wedding to
Nellie (Helen) Holt in 1909 and Charles appears to have married as
his wife Mrs Charles Clark attended the funeral service of Lady Hawtrey
(his sister Katherine Elsie Clark) in 1930, although there is no record
he was there.
His brother Murray (b.1863) had attended the funeral of Sir Charles Hawtrey
in 1923. |
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| Photographs of William Lyon Clark (and his second marriage) and
information kindly supplied by Sarah Montgomery |
| Photographs and information about William Lyon Clark (and his first
marriage) and his son Arthur Gordon Lyon Clark and family kindly supplied
by Keith Bryer |
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