He kept his surgery open through the Blitz.
Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke was born in Barbados in 1894 and built his medical career in London, opening a practice around 1920 that served patients often turned away elsewhere.
He kept his surgery running through the Blitz, treating Londoners while the bombs fell. His name is attached to Clarke’s Rule, a formula for calculating safe medicine doses for children that has been carried forward in medical reference.
In 1931 he joined Dr Harold Moody to co-found the League of Coloured Peoples, an organisation that campaigned for the rights and dignity of Black people across Britain, gathering professionals, students, and workers behind a common cause. His was a life of steady, practical service, medicine and organising held together, the consulting room and the campaign meeting treated as two parts of the same work.
His name is in the deck.
Explore the record
Timeline
- 1894Born in Barbados.
- 1920Established a medical practice in London, serving patients often denied care elsewhere.
- 1931Co-founded the League of Coloured Peoples with Dr Harold Moody.
- 1940Kept his practice open through the Blitz.
0 salutes
I salute Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke, who kept his surgery open through the Blitz and his door open to the cause.
Lived alongside
