Hilda Clark (12 January 1881- 24 February 1955) was a physician and humanitarian. She was an expert in pulmonary care and a leader in hospitals for refugees in France during World War I. After the war she was active in international organizations for peace as well as in providing for refugees of other wars, including the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
Clark was born 12 January 1881 at Green Bank, Street, Somerset and was the youngest child of the Quaker shoe manufacturer William Stephens Clark and the social reformer Helen Priestman Bright Clark.[1][2][unreliable source?] The Clark family of Street were Quakers of shoe-making fame as C. and J. Clark Ltd. Manufacturer of boots, shoes & sheepskin rugs. She was the sister of Alice Clark, the feminist and historian and the niece of Annie Clark, one the first pioneering women to formally train in medicine in Britain. Her mother and great-aunts helped to found a number of women's rights organizations in the 1860s.[1]
As a child, she was involved in athletics and gymnastics. She had a Quaker education at Brighthelmston, at Birkdale in Southport, Lancashire, about 1896–7, and The Mount, in York, from about 1897 to 1900, before studying medicine at Birmingham University and the Royal Free Hospital, London where she graduated M.B. and B.S. in 1908.[1]
Clark specialised in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. She was instrumental in administering the TB vaccine developed by Dr W. Camac-Wilkinson.[3] During WW1 she was engaged in providing medical relief work in France, Austria and the Soviet Union.[4] She founded Friends War Victim Relief with fellow Quaker Edmund Harvey and was medical organiser of the first Friends War Victim Relief team in France, of which Edith Pye was a member.[5]
Clark reported in 1919 on behalf of the Save the Children Fund about the dire condition of children's health in Austria during that country's famine years and proposed cheap dietary solutions to rectify the deficiencies.[6][failed verification] She organised a scheme to buy cows from the Netherlands and Switzerland and fodder from Croatia and Czechoslovakia in order to produce much needed milk for children.[5]
During the 1920s Hilda was an active member of a number of humanitarian organisations including the League of Nations, the Women's Peace Crusade (of which she was secretary), the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the International Commission for the Assistance of Child Refugees as well as Quaker campaigns such as the Friends' Service Council. She also worked for the relief of refugees in the Spanish Civil War and World War II.[1] After her work with refugees in various European countries she became a noted speaker about international affairs on behalf of the League of Nations and other international bodies. Clark was Chairman of the Anti-Opium Committee of the Women's International League which advocated state control of 'dangerous drugs'.[7][failed verification]
Her home in London was bombed in 1940 and she moved to Kent, where she was active in the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmens Families Association. She became disabled as a result of Parkinson's disease and returned to Street in 1952, where she died unmarried at her home on 24 February 1955 and was buried at the Street Quaker burial ground.[1][8][unreliable source?]