Sir Henry Ashley Clarke was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Italy. Later he was chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund.
Occupation
diplomat, politician, art collector
Position held
Governor of the BBC, ambassador of the United Kingdom to Italy
Citizenship
United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Born
June 26, 1903
Died
January 20, 1994
Overview
Sir Henry Ashley Clarke (26 June 1903 – 20 January 1994) was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Italy. Later he was chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund.
Early life
Henry Ashley Clarke was a son of Henry Hugh Rose Clarke (a son of Col. Henry Stephenson Clarke) and the former Rachel Hill Duncan (a daughter of John H. H. Duncan). He was educated at Repton School and Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Career
Clarke joined the Diplomatic Service in 1925. He served at Budapest, Warsaw, Constantinople, Geneva (for the General Disarmament Conference) and Tokyo. He was Minister at Lisbon 1944–46 and at Paris 1946–49 under the ambassadors Duff Cooper and Sir Oliver Harvey.
From 1949 to 1953 he served at the Foreign Office as assistant Under-Secretary, then deputy Under-Secretary. He was officially present at the funeral of King George VI at Windsor in February 1952. In 1953, he received his last appointment as Ambassador to Italy where he remained for nine years, an unusually long period.
