Frederick Le Gros Clark - Malnutrition

Obituary: Bill Clark

We record with regret the death of Frederick Le Gros Clark on 22 September 1977 at the age of 85.(born 1892) Known to his friends as "Bill" he was closely associated with the LRD for many years. At the end of the first world war he lost a hand and was blinded in both eyes. This did not prevent him from becoming a distinguished social scientist. He was one of the foremost leaders in the struggle against hunger during the 1930s.

Early on he helped to found the Committee against malnutrition, a body composed of doctors and scientists which fought to expose the truth about the widespread under-nourishment which prevailed. Articles and pamphlets published by the LRD in the early thirties under titles such as Social Murder and Standards of Starvation owed much to his expert help, and in 1936 he was co-opted as a member of the LRD Executive Committee. For the following three years, 1937,1938 and 1939 he was re-elected to the executive and continued as a persistent and regular attender until the bombing in the summer of 1940 made it difficult to get into London.

There-after he did not stand for re-election to the Executive but continued his close collaboration; for example, he served on an informal committee of experts which met at the LRD to examine the implications of the Beveridge Report in 1942. By this time he was secretary of the Children's Nutrition Council and later carried out some important studies of the school meals service, civic restaurants etc.

In later years he turned his attention to the problems of old age. This is not the place to list his numerous publications but two in particular made considerable impact and added greatly to our understanding: Ageing in Industry (1955) and
Work, Age and Leisure (1966). He will be remembered as a man who succeeded in making a notable contribution to the fight for higher living standards.

Labour Research November 1977

NOTE
He was also a key national committee member of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee established 1^st August 1936

Books on Evacation of children during the war for the Fabians to Left Book
F. Le Gros Clark and Ida The Adventures of the Little Pig and Other Stories and books on Soviet Medicine