Edward Mann Clark (12 April 1854 – 30 May 1933), often referred to as E. M. Clark, was an Australian politician. He was a North Sydney alderman for many years and served six terms as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in North Shore electorates. He was counted amongst the thirty-five Labor Electoral League members elected to parliament in 1891, but for most of his political career, Clark was identified with free trade fiscal beliefs, mostly as an independent and occasionally representing the Free Trade Party.
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Early life
Edward Arthur Mann Clark was born on 12 April 1854 at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, the son of William and Selina Clark. Edward's father was a carpenter.
Young Edward was educated at Oldfield's Commercial Academy in Hobart.
Edward's father died in 1866, when he was aged twelve, after which the family moved to Sydney.
Early career
Clark was first employed by N. Dawson, a watchmaker with business premises in Barrack Street, Sydney. He intended learning the watchmaking trade, but after Dawson's death he left and took a position with the timber merchants, Messrs. Goodlet and Smith, an established business with a steam saw and joinery mill at Darling Harbour and a head office at 483 George Street. For the remainder of his working life Clark was connected with the timber and building trade.
By 1878, Clark was working for the timber merchants, Miller and Harrison.
By July 1881, Clark was a partner of Clark and Priestman, timber merchants of the corner of Walker and Blue streets in North Sydney. In late November 1883, Clark's business partner, Edward Priestman, appeared before the Insolvency Court. After Priestman became insolvent, the partnership was terminated, and Clark took over the running of the business on his own account.
In 1884, Clark was elected as an alderman of the municipality of East St. Leonards. He was elected mayor in 1885.
In June 1885, Clark's timber business on Sydney's North Shore, E. M. Clark and Company, was the subject of insolvency proceedings and assigned to trustees. In about March 1886, Clark resigned as alderman of East St. Leonards, and a clearing sale of timber was held by the trustees. In November 1886 an allotment with a brick cottage fronting Arthur and Little Walker streets, St. Leonards, was sold in order to close the accounts "in the assigned estate of E. M. Clark".
Clark was re-elected as an alderman of the borough council of East St. Leonards in 1888. He was actively involved in the proposed amalgamation of the boroughs of East St. Leonards, St. Leonards and Victoria to form the municipality of North Sydney. After the amalgamation in July 1890 Clark was elected as an alderman of the North Sydney Council. He was an alderman of the North Sydney Council on a continuous basis from its incorporation in 1890 until 1928.
By 1891, Clark was the manager of a brick company.
Political career
Clark's first attempt to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly was at the October 1885 general election when he was a candidate for the two-member electorate of St. Leonards. The contest for the electorate was closely watched by the colonial press and the general public, with the premier George Dibbs being one of the sitting members. Dibbs had only recently become leader of the colonial government upon the resignation of Alexander Stuart (on the day parliament was dissolved). As well as Clark and Dibbs, the other candidates for the seat of St. Leonards was the veteran parliamentarian and prominent opposition politician, Henry Parkes, as well as the other sitting member Isaac Ives (who had won the seat in a by-election three months earlier). Parkes had been one of the members for Argyle prior to the election, elected in a by-election in late March 1885, but he chose to contest the St. Leonards electorate at the general election as a direct challenge to Dibbs. At the election held on 16 October 1885, Parkes topped the poll with 1,506 votes (33.4 percent) and Ives polled second to retain his seat. Dibbs was defeated with 23 percent of the vote, and Clark finished fourth with 18.2 percent.
Clark was urged by supporters to become a candidate at the 1887 general election. However, at that time the fiscal issue of free trade versus protectionism dominated the political discourse and Clark was asked by Henry Parkes, parliamentary leader of the emerging Free Trade Party, to retire from the contest in order that he and his colleague Isaac Ives might be returned unopposed.
Clark made a second attempt to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly at the 1889 general election, for which St. Leonards was allocated one extra seat making it a three-member electorate. Of the five candidates, four were identified as free trade candidates (including Clark), and the fifth was a protectionist. Isaac Ives had decided not to re-contest his seat and Parkes chose Joseph Cullen and John Fitzgerald Burns (previously the member for The Hunter) as the other two Free Trade Party candidates, leaving Clark to run as an independent candidate. Parkes and his two Free Trade Party colleagues were elected, with Clark polling fourth and again failing to be elected.
In September 1890 Clark was prominently involved in establishing a branch of the Single Tax League at North Sydney.
Personal life
Edward M. Clark and Margaret ('Maggie') Herbertson Jenkins were married on 24 January 1874 at the residence of the bride's parents in Elizabeth Street, Sydney. The couple had 7 children born from 1876 to 1884.
By 1880 Edward Clark and his family were living at St. Leonards on Sydney's North Shore.
In 1926 Edward and Margaret Clark were living in Ridge Street, North Sydney. Margaret Clark died on 20 April 1926 and was buried in the Methodist cemetery at Gore Hill.
On 6 August 1926 Edward M. Clark and Emma Eileen Kirby were married.
Later life and death
Clark was actively associated with the movements for the establishment of the Taronga Park Zoo (opened in 1916) and the Northern Suburbs cemetery (opened in 1922).
Edward Mann Clark died on 30 May 1933 at his residence in Laycock Street, Neutral Bay, aged 72.