2-3 / 160
3
www.adams.ieThe R.S.J.Clarke Collection of Cartography
15
th
December 2015
Professor Richard Samuel Jessop Clarke, M.D.
Richard Clarke was born in 1929, son of Dr Brice Clarke, a noted tuberculosis physician. He qualified at Queen`s University, Belfast
and, after some spells of work in Oxford and London, returned to his native city where he has remained. He worked mainly in
cardiac anaesthesia in the Royal Victoria Hospital, but also in clinical research, leading to the Chair of Anaesthesia. He also had
a career-long connection with the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, becoming Dean in 1991.
As well as his medical work he has found time for a variety of outside interests – some would say obsessions ! Not content with
working on his own family history, he took up copying old gravestones and, in conjunction with the Ulster Historical Foundation,
published some 30 volumes and many papers in this field.
Collecting Irish maps began in the 1950s, when they could be bought in London for single figures sums. However, soon he was
collecting from dealers all over England and Ireland, Andrew Bonar Law being a strong influence and valuable instructor. He con-
centrated on the field of charts of Ireland and the British Isles and made trips to museums and libraries all over Western Europe to
examine atlases and compile a broader archive of charts of Irish waters and their cartographers.
His travels for work enabled him to pursue other cultural interests, particularly opera, but it must be said Belfast is not a great
centre for keeping this up, except for the regular relays from the “Met”, New York, via C.A.I. Retiring from the career in anaesthet-
ics left him with many medical contacts, so he welcomed the post of Honorary Archivist in his old hospital, and at this stage he
published further books on the history of the hospital, a biography of Sir Ian Fraser (elected President of the R.C.S.I. in 1954), and
a 2-volume Directory of Ulster Doctors who qualified before 1901.
He has been supported in these various interests by his long-suffering wife, born Kyleen Colhoun, a Derry girl whose mother had
been at school with his mother – unusual even in the close-knit society of Northern Ireland. Now in his 80s, Richard feels that the
time has come to pass on his maps to other collectors and concentrate on keeping in good health by gardening.
The Richard S.J. Clarke Collection
of Cartography