A Tribute to Lady Clark

By her grandson, Nick Clark

Lady Marjorie Clark – the owner of Munstead Wood, one of Edwin Lutyens’s earliest masterpieces which he designed for the internationally renowned gardener Gertrude Jekyll – died on 9 March, 2022 at the age of 97.

Born in July, 1924, Andolyn Marjorie Beynon Lewis grew up in South Wales. After her mother, Andolyn Beynon, died in childbirth, Marjorie and her elder sister, Gwenda, were brought up by their grandmother in a Welsh-speaking household – Marjorie only learning English at the age of five.

After an early education at a local school, Marjorie was sent to Cheltenham Ladies College in 1937 where she excelled at maths, languages and sport, rising to captain the first XI cricket team. Perhaps it was no surprise, as her father played rugby before the First World War and was capped five times for Wales.

In 1943, at the age of 19, Marjorie was interviewed by a man who, unknown to her, was recruiting young women to join the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, known colloquially as the FANY. This supported the Special Operations Executive (SOE), part of Winston Churchill’s “secret army” established to conduct subversion and espionage in occupied Europe. Marjorie was one of two pupils selected by the school’s headmistress for the interviews, saying she met the FANY criteria of being intelligent and able to keep a secret.

Marjorie joined the organisation to work with SOE as a wireless operator, turning down a place at the University of Oxford “to do my bit”. After rigorous training, including in codes, ciphers and mastering high-speed Morse transmission, she was posted to Monopoli in southern Italy, shortly after the Allied invasion. Her role was to maintain contact with agents behind enemy lines and their survival often depended on her ability to recognise their transmission “signatures” and transmit responses rapidly. The work was intense – 12 hour shifts in darkened rooms – and pressurised.

Shortly after her arrival in Monopoli, she met the man who was to become her husband, Sub Lt Bob Clark, a recently arrived member of the SOE unit which was operating missions in submarines, torpedo boats and converted fishing boats. Bob was a sensitive and thoughtful man who carried his childhood teddy bear in his battledress and their relationship blossomed; one described by novelist William Boyd as having “a kind of wartime Romeo and Juliet aspect… Their blossoming love was plagued by a continuous sense of danger”.

Marjorie faced considerable challenges in Italy – Bob’s absences on missions, a bout of malaria and the mental exhaustion caused by the intensity of the wireless operator role which could mean life or death for agents in the field. Ultimately, she suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to a “rest camp” to recover, passing through Rome immediately after its liberation.

Shortly afterwards, Bob was captured and held in a series of prisons and PoW camps, where he experienced appalling treatment. Marjorie had no idea whether he was dead or alive until, after returning to the UK in May, 1945, she received a telegram that read, “Arriving London from Germany. Meet me London”. They were reunited at Paddington Station where, notwithstanding their great love, they shook hands.

Marjorie and Bob were married in London in July, 1949, a marriage that lasted 63 years until Bob’s death in 2013. They had three children – Tim, Will and Catherine. In the last four years of her life, Marjorie’s wartime experiences were the subject of two books – Monopoli Blues by Tim with co-author Nick Cook and Women in the War: The Last Heroines of Britain’s Greatest Generation by political journalist Lucy Fisher.

It was in 1968, after living in various homes near Guildford, that Marjorie and Bob found the “beautiful house” they had long been searching for when Munstead Wood was put up for sale. The seller, Major Gardiner, chose them as he felt they would look after the house better than the competing buyers.

At the time, Lutyens’s reputation was in decline, with his designs regarded as old-fashioned. It wasn’t until the major exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1981 that the architect’s reputation was re-evaluated and restored. For the rest of Marjorie and Bob’s ownership of Munstead Wood, the house was regularly visited by architects, horticulturalists and enthusiasts from across the world.

When the storms of 1987 caused significant damage to its garden, Marjorie and Bob decided it was an opportunity to restore it to its original Jekyll designs. Over the next two decades, with a considerable amount of research, work and investment, they achieved their aim, with the enormous support of their head gardeners, Stephen King and Annabel Watts.

Marjorie was a character who had a way with people of all backgrounds. She had a feisty approach – leavened by humour and warmth – which meant that she touched many people’s lives and in a way that they would often remember with affection. She had two predominant characteristics. The first was her fortitude – linked to selfreliance and sheer determination. It was something she shared with Bob – as well as being a characteristic of their extraordinary generation – perhaps forged out of their wartime experiences. The second, and very different characteristic, was an engaging sense of naughtiness, which survived from her childhood in Wales right up until the end.

Marjorie is survived by her three children, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.