Wilfrid Le Gros Clark

Wilfrid Le Gros Clark

Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark (June 5, 1895 – June 28, 1971) was a British anatomist surgeon, primatologist and palaeoanthropologist, today best remembered for his contribution to the study of human evolution.

Le Gros Clark was educated at Blundell's School and subsequently admitted as a medical student to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. After qualification he immediately joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a medical officer and was sent to France early in 1918. He caught diphtheria and was sent back to England to recover, following which he spent the remainder of the war as a medical officer at ‘‘No. 8 Stationary Hospital’’ at Wimereux in northern France.

Following a period in the Department of Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School he was appointed as Principal Medical Officer to the Sarawak Government. He was subsequently appointed as Professor of Anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, followed by a period as Professor of Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School and finally, in 1934, he was invited to take over as the Dr. Lee’s Professor of Anatomy (and effectively the Chair of the Anatomy Department) at Oxford University. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1953, Le Gros Clark was one of three men (the others being Joseph Weiner and Kenneth Oakley) who proved that the Piltdown Man was a forgery.

He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1961 and delivered their Ferrier Lecture in 1956. He was elected President of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for 1951 to 1953.

Papers relating to Le Gros Clark, his grandfather Dr. Frederick Le Gros Clark and his brother Cyril Le Gros Clark (former Chief Secretary of Sarawak, who was killed in 1945 after a period of detention at Batu Lintang camp in Borneo) are held at the Bodleian Library (Special Collections and Western Manuscripts) at Oxford University.