Public Service
Clark took little interest in party politics but was an opponent of protectionism and served on a royal commission on the coal trade (1866–1871).
He was an active citizen in Merthyr Tudful, his offices and duties including:
- Chair of:
- Board of Guardians;
- Board of Health;
- Burial board; and
- School board, working to extend the schools founded by the Guests;
- Supporting further places of worship, including the building of St. Mary's Welsh Church;
- Command, as lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd (Dowlais) corps, Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers;
- Magistrate;
- High Sheriff of Glamorgan (1868).
However, he opposed incorporation of Merthyr Tudful as he believed it would harm the Dowlais business interests.
Clark's combined medical and engineering knowledge led to a general interest in public health. He was retained by the General Board of Health and worked on analysing the sanitary condition of towns and villages countrywide.
Read more about this topic: G. T. Clark
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or service:
“I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the heart of all things, and even higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)