John Smith Clarke (4 February 1885 – 30 January 1959) was a British author, newspaper editor, poet, socialist politician, and lion tamer.
Born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, Clarke began performing in the circus from a young age—riding a horse bareback from age 10 and becoming the country's youngest lion tamer at age 17. In his early life, he was also a sailor and gun runner for Russian revolutionaries. During the First World War, he wrote for publications that expressed an anti-war sentiment, which forced him to go into hiding. He was part of a group of Socialist Labour Party conscientious objectors called the 'flying corps' who evaded authorities and avoided prosecution. In 1920, he visited Russia as a delegate to the Second Congress of the Communist International.
Clarke joined the Independent Labour Party in the late 1920s and served on the Glasgow Corporation. In 1929 he was elected Labour MP for Maryhill in Glasgow. He lost the seat in 1931 and subsequently left the Independent Labour Party. Over his lifetime, he identified as a Bolshevik, anti-capitalist, and neither right nor left-wing.
Clarke was interested in the arts and held governance positions for the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Glasgow School of Art. He was a collector of antiquities and amassed a wealth of knowledge about military weapons, armour and Scottish history. He also continued to tame wild animals throughout his life; he demonstrated humane training methods in a lion and tiger cage whilst an MP, and brought a box of snakes to Parliament.
Early life
John Smith Clarke was born in Jarrow on 4 February 1885. His fatheralso named John Smith Clarkeand mother, Sally Ann Chiswell, had at least thirteen children, but only seven lived beyond childhood. The family lived in poverty and the elder John Smith Clarke's professions, which included performing in circuses and working in a shop, meant they frequently moved around the country. Chiswell was a school teacher and was descended from a Gypsy family.
Clarke did not receive a standard formal education in his youth. He performed in the circus by age 10, riding horses bareback whilst doing tricks. At age 17, he was performing as a lion tamer and was attacked multiple times by animals. Clarke claimed he was the youngest lion tamer in the country at the time. During this time, Clarke was working as a messenger for North Eastern Railway.
Whilst in Newcastle upon Tyne, he took part in a local socialist society and he became the editor of its newspaper, The Keel, in 1906. Clarke also became a sailor and was involved in gun running for Russian revolutionaries. He recounted his experiences—including witnessing a murder and suffering a knife attack in Antwerp—in a series of articles for the Sunday Sun entitled Roughing it Round the World. Clarke's experience in writing opened up opportunities in the publishing industry, and he began writing for newspapers and journals in Edinburgh. He was secretary to the feminist Jane Clapperton, who had an impact on Clarke's politics and whom he described as "one of the most wonderful women I ever met". By 1911 he had married Sarah Millicent Balkind, who was originally from Russia and worked as an assistant to a jeweller. Her father was a Rabbi and a Hebrew teacher. Clarke and Balkind had one son together, John Hume Chiswell Clarke, born in Edinburgh.
Political career
First World War
Around the early 1910s, Clarke became a socialist and joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP). He edited the party newspaper, The Socialist, from 1913 to 1914 and again for a period during the First World War with Arthur MacManus, Tom Bell and William Paul. He also contributed to journals, including the Reform Journal, Forward and Plebs. Clarke was opposed to the war and, although he expressed anti-war attitudes in his publications, managed to avoid being imprisoned for them. The Socialist, in particular, was an anti-war newspaper that aimed to move the working class away from their patriotic support of the war by emphasising that it was a result of capitalism. At the war's outbreak, Clarke wrote in The Socialist: "Our attitude is neither pro-German nor pro-British, but anti-capitalist and all that it stands for in every country of the world". Authorities initially dismissed The Socialist but came to see it as a threat as more workers—including a shop stewards' union—began to align with its sentiment.