Obituary

OBITUARY DENNIS CLARKE Reginald Dennis Clarke died on 6th February, 1989, at the age of 82, having been in failing health for some time. After spending his early years in Brighton, he took a London University B.A. degree with History Honours in 1926 and M.A. (under Isobel Thornley) in 1930. He and Joan were married in 1938 and two years later made their home at Otford, where they remained until moving to Sevenoaks in 1982. His war service was on the R.A.F. gro:und staff, mainly in the Middle East. In 1946, be became bead of the history department of Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School, a position he held until his retirement in 1966. A member of the Society from 1952 to 1981, he distinguished himself as one of Kent's foremost authorities on the county's social and economic history during the Stuart period, exemplified by his paper 'West Kent Quarter-Sessions Orders in the Reign of Charles I' (Arch. Cant., lxxx (1965)). He was a founder Committee-member in 1950 of the Otford and District Historical Society, becoming Hon. Secretary 1953-54 and Chairman 1956-62. After playing a prominent part in that society's excavation of St. Thomas a Becket's Well, Otford, he was one of the authors of the report in Arch. Cant., lxx (1956). He applied his scholarly professionalism to the study of local history, giving a great many lectures and producing published monographs, notably An Outline History of Otford (1967) and The Medieval Hospital of St. John the Baptist, Sevenoaks(1971). His majorworkwas as co-author of the widely-acclaimed book Otford in Kent-A History (1975). All these publications stand as permanent memorials, eloquently testifying to his very extensive documentary researches. Among the many friends who will miss him, the present obituarist looks back upon an active and stimulating local-history partnership lasting some thirty years. A.D.S. 225