User:Charles Anthony Clark/sandbox

= Charles Anthony Clark = Charles Anthony Clark (13 June 1940 - 14 February 2024) was a British Civil Servant awarded, the Companion of the Bath award from Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to education and employment in Britain. He started off as an Information Officer in the 1960s, with a slow rise up to becoming the Director of Higher Education at the Department for Education and Employment.

Charles Anthony Clark was born on June 13, 1940, in Ealing, London but after an unfortunate bombing in the London Blitz of his house, he had to live with his aunt, in Epsom (in Surrey), with the rest of his family. He was the middle child of Winnifred Clark and Steven Clark, with 3 siblings - Bernard, Stephanie and Malcolm. He was educated at King's College School in Wimbledon, a prestigious school showing his talent and potential. He flew jets in the 1960s and took time off education in order to take flying lessons. He went on to have over 100 hours of flight time. He enjoyed running, peaking at Oxford University with multiple record breaking runs one of these record was a 1:55 800m, 1:53 880yd and 4:17 mile. These records are remarkable considering he did all of them aged between 18-21 years old, performing these whilst at Oxford University. Following graduation in 1962, he drove to and from Bangkok to carry out a survey of Education in Thailand. Following retirement in 2000 when he reached 60 years of age he decided to officially retire and decided taking trips around the world, but going to the far east, crossing countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan was no longer an option. During his retirement he took trips to Ireland and enjoyed many holidays in Dublin and Rosscarbery. On one of these trips he told his wife Penny (Penelope Clark, prior Penelope Brett, sister of Simon Brett and Michael Brett, the author of How To Read The Financial Pages) that he would walk across Ireland. He kept his promise and walked and canaled a span of 150 miles.

Education
For secondary school, he went to King's College, where he was a very talented student. With this potential, he went on to study physics at Pembroke College, Oxford University, getting a degree. Whilst at these schools he went as Tony Clark, which became a nickname for him that most of his future colleagues and friends used. Whilst at Oxford he often trained athletics and strived to break records which he did. His 880 yard dash (which he completed 1:53, aged 19) is still left unbroken for all British university students, after 60 years and his 800 metre dash (clocked in at 1:55) was unfortunately broken by a determined athlete. His mile was 30 seconds off the current world record for a mile.

Career
Charles Clark started his career by being a paper boy at the young age of 12. Following the expedition to Thailand, he applied to be an Information Officer at the Department for Education. His colleagues often called him the life of the office the social glue. He then became good friends with his supervisor then he replaced his supervisor when he rose up and quickly overtook him. After this he decided to keep on endeavouring to become the best and soon he achieved this goal. In 2000, aged 60, he retired as the director of Higher Education at the Department for Education and Employment. Once retired, he decided to grown and sell Christmas trees every year, and donate the profits to charity.

Notable Trips and True Stories
As talked about before, in the 1960s, before working a complete job, he went on an expedition across East Asia, travelling using boats and a Land Rover over mountains and through deserts, with a couple friends, to Thailand, to look at education in Thailand. His story featured on newspapers, telling readers about his journey and learnings. This trip was sponsored by Mars and many other notable companies in order to fund this trip. He had learnt a lot and was excited about the future, so went on another trip across Ireland after retirement, travelling over 150 miles and having fun all the way through.

Passing Away
After retiring in 2000, he found lots of free time to travel and make memories with family - made up of Penelope, Jonathan, Phillipa and Joe. Unfortunately, in his late 60s, he contracted Alzheimer's. A true showing of his determination and courage was shown when he didn't tell anyone he had it, as he didn't want people to treat him differently, and he didn't want Alzheimer's to shape him and his personality, controlling him. In the Covid-19 lockdown, after about 15 years of having Alzheimer's, Anthony was moved to Liberham Lodge (a care home in Surrey), where he stayed for about 3 years, courageously fighting a restless battle against Alzheimer's. Despite this, on Valentines Day 2024, he sadly passed away, but calmly with full inner peace.