Directory of Irish Family History Research, no. 46, 2023

It was with great sadness that the Ulster Historical Foundation learned of the passing of Professor Richard Clarke, peacefully at his home on King’s Road, Belfast, on 6 December 2023. He had reached the venerable age of 94.

Richard Samuel Jessop (R.S.J.) Clarke was born in 1929, the son of the respected physician Dr Brice Clarke, who specialised in the treatment of tuberculosis, and grandson of Richard Clarke, who served as rector of Carnmoney for over 40 years and held a number of senior positions in the Church of Ireland diocese of Connor. His mother was Doreen Cassidy from Limavady, County Londonderry.

Richard Clarke enjoyed a distinguished career in medicine, specialising in anaesthesiology at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), where he became Consultant Anaesthetist. He was also Professor of Clinical Anaesthetics at Queen’s University Belfast. In addition, he was Dean of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in 1991–4 and for many years chaired the Faculty’s Education Committee. On his retirement, he served as the Honorary Archivist of the RVH and, in 1997, authored The Royal Victoria Hospital: A History, 1797–1997. He also wrote numerous academic papers, principally on physiology and anaesthesiology.

From an early age, Richard had a keen interest in the world around him. He joined the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club in 1945 and went on to serve as Honorary Secretary, Sectional Secretary for Archaeology, and President in 1968–9 and 1986–7. Though his eyesight failed in his final years, he remained remarkably active into old age, retaining his love of the outdoors – at the age of 80 he climbed Slieve Donard, the highest peak in Northern Ireland.

Richard Clarke

Richard also had a longstanding connection with the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, serving as President in the years 1980–82. He was also the editor of the Society’s Proceedings. Another of his interests was cartography and over many years he assembled an outstanding collection of maps, which he sold in 2015.

Richard had one of the longest, if not the longest, associations with the Ulster Historical Foundation – going back to the 1960s when the organisation published his first volume of gravestone inscriptions for County Down in 1966. Some 31 volumes were produced under Richard’s guiding hand. In addition, in 2013 the Foundation published his impressive two-volume work, A Directory of Ulster Doctors (who qualified before 1901), a hugely valuable resource for historians and genealogists on which he had spent a significant part of his working life and retirement researching.

Richard was a Trustee of the Foundation from 1977–2005, Chairman of the Board 1995–7, and he chaired the publications committee from 1998 to 2015. He also, in November 2018, donated some 1,100 items from his personal collection to the Foundation’s library. He was a kind, decent, generous, genuine man, and was an unfailing supporter of the charity over six decades. The Foundation never had a better friend.

We extend our heartfelt sympathy to his family. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Kyleen, daughters Anne and Susan, and grandchildren Matthew and Kirsty, Katie and Rosie; he was predeceased by his son John. Testifying to the high regard in which he was held, his funeral at St Columba’s Church, Knock, on 15 December was well attended.