Somers Clarke

George Somers Clarke (22 July 1841 – 31 August 1926) was an architect and English Egyptologist who worked on the restoration and design of churches and at a number of sites throughout Egypt, notably in El Kab, where he built a mud brick house. He was the son of solicitor Somers C. and Sarah Blaker in Brighton, where he was born and privately educated. Clarke began as an apprentice to the law for five years before beginning work with Sir G. Gilbert Scott. He was one of the pupils of Sir Charles Barry, who was also a British architect.

As an architect he mainly worked on restoring churches. He entered the offices of Sir Gilbert Scott and later worked in partnership with John Micklethwaite from offices at 15 Dean's Yard, Westminster, London. In this partnership they accomplished numerous church restorations and repairs, for St. Martin's in Brighton, St. John the Divine Church in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, and many others. He joined the Society of Antiquaries of London 1881. Later became a fellow member of the Royal Society of Arts in 1892. He was Surveyor of the Fabric of St Paul's Cathedral from 1897 to 1906. He was the architect in charge of St. Paul's Cathedral, and during his time working on the conservation of the cathedral, he would write to The New York Times about the poor conditions the cathedral was in. As Surveyor of St Paul's Cathedral, he designed the new lighting, funded by a gift from Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, and the stalls for the chapel of the Order of St. Micheal and St. George. Working alongside Sir W. B. Richmond, he organized internal decorations for the chapel and relocated, from a small side-chapel, Alfred Stevens' Monument to the Duke of Wellington. After he was done with his work at St. Paul's Cathedral, he was succeeded by Mervyn Macartney as the Surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1907. Clarke also worked with the Dean and Chapter of Chichester Cathedral as a selected architect in 1900.

View of Reid's Hotel in Funchal, Madeira, photographed by Sarah Angelina Acland (c. 1910)

After he retired in 1922, Clarke continued to live in Egypt. His interpreter, Daud Hasan of Argin, and Nubian servant lived with him in his retirement home. While in Egypt, he became an honorary member of Comite de Conservation des Monuments de l' Art Arabe and assisted in repairing several ancient temples. He occasionally participated in architectural discussions at meetings for the Council of the Society of Antiquaries as a member for 45 years and, since 1892, as a life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He was also an original member of The Royal Musical Association . He died in Mahamid in August 1926. His early independent work focused on church design and restoration, heavily influenced by the Gothic Revival Style he learned from Sir George Gilbert Scott. His first major independent project was St. Martin's Church on Lewes Road in Brighton, built between 1874 and 1875 as a memorial to the Reverend H.M. Wagner. While the building featured a restrained brick exterior, Somers Clarke spent the next three decades designing its elaborate interior fittings, including the ornate font canopy. One of their collaborations was the St. Martin's Church, Brighton, where it was the first model of one of the sides of the Church which was shown in the 1st exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery in London in 1888. The Egyptian department of the British Museum were also gifted some of his work regarding the churches of Egypt in the form of drawings, papers, and maps. The Egyptian Exploration Fund were also gifted some his articles about Coptic lamps and clothing. He received small collections of broken pottery from the excavations of the Fostat area in Egypt and then sent them to South Kensington, UK, and other rural museums. Today, many of his architecture drawings of some of his projects can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK.

Works, books and writings