Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark, 1895-1971

Abstract Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was the leading figure of British anatomy for all of thirty years. He was born on 5 June 1895, the youngest of the three sons of the Reverend Travers Clark of Hemel Hempstead who, being a well-ordered man early decreed the careers which his three sons were to follow. All achieved great distinction, but only the youngest fulfilled the paternal pattern. As Wilfrid tells in the autobiography which he published in 1968 under the title Chant of pleasant exploration, he was to follow the footsteps of his maternal and paternal grandfathers, both of whom had served with great distinction on the consultant staff of St Thomas’s Hospital. Accordingly, after matriculating from Blundell’s School in Dorset at the age of 16, he was sent in 1912 to bt Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. While he was still a student the First World War broke out. He qualified M.R.C.S. in 1916 and then joined tie R.A.M.C., with which he served in France from the beginning of 1918.