Basil Clarke

Sir Thomas Basil Clarke (12 August 1879 – 12 December 1947) was an English war correspondent during the First World War and is regarded as the UK's first public relations professional.

Early life Born in Altrincham, the son of a chemist, Clarke went to Manchester Grammar School and then as a young man, he played for Manchester Rugby Club, despite the handicap of having only one eye, the result of an accident in infancy.

Originally, he intended to make a music career. and he started a long-distance degree in Classics and Music at Oxford University but dropped out without completing any exams. After a career in banking, he spent most of 1903 travelling Germany, where he taught English, boxing and swimming and played the piano in an orchestra.

His time in Dublin was controversial. The official newspaper of the government of the Irish Republic, the Irish Bulletin, accused Clarke of inventing stories and more recently historians have accused him of putting out false information to discredit Sinn Féin and the IRA. But a 2013 biography of Clarke has suggested that while some of the statements issued by his office were incorrect, there is no strong evidence this was done deliberately. Clarke worked to counter the negative press coverage associated with two high profile deaths in Ireland: the death on hunger strike by the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney (25 October 1920) and the execution of 18 year old Kevin Barry (1 November 1920). By mid-November 1920, the Irish Bulletin was publishing information which showed that Clarkes "official" narrative of Irish affairs was highly suspect. Clarkes Department of Publicity/Public Information had the difficult task of writing the British response to the Bloody Sunday retaliatory massacre in November 1920.

Also in Ireland, Clarke pioneered an approach to public relations he called "propaganda by news", the practice of influencing the news agenda through the selection of which news to release. The theory of propaganda by news is that it is facts that will influence public opinion and so these should be presented in as plain language as possible, rather than trying to add negative adjectives to it.

Following the Irish War of Independence, Clarke returned to the Ministry of Health and while there was knighted in 1923 for his services in Ireland. But the same year he was made redundant as part of the Geddes Axe. In 1924 he established Editorial Services Ltd, now generally seen as the first UK public relations agency, and by the end of the 1920s he was running a significant operation with 60 staffers. Its clients included Heinz, Lyons and the National Union of Teachers. While running Editorial Services Ltd, he developed the world's first public relations code of conduct and he championed ethics in public relations.

Personal life Clarke married Alice in 1904 and they had seven children together. He was a member of various clubs and societies, including President of the Manchester Press Club and he was awarded the Order of the Dannebrog for his membership of the Anglo-Danish Society. He also had various business investments, including Whitehall Films, but these investments were invariably failures.

While well-liked, he displayed a violent temper throughout his adult life. His job teaching English in Germany in 1903 ended following a fight with his employer, while in 1930 he was involved in two high-profile court cases after violent incidents. In one of them he was accused of attacking a former colleague at Whitehall Films with an oar while he was out boating on the River Thames with his wife.

Retirement and death Clarke had a stroke in 1935 and spent the rest of his life in ill-health. He died in 1947.