Brice Clarke (1895–1975) and the control of tuberculosis in Northern Ireland

Among the problems facing Northern Ireland after its foundation in 1920, one of the most daunting was the prevalence of tuberculosis, a chronic communicable disease with highest mortality among young women and men in the prime of life. Over a quarter of a century, legislative changes tardily responded, and in spite of, or because of its magnitude, Brice Clarke (1895–1975) devoted himself to the challenge. After decorated service in the Great War of 1914–19 he returned to finish his medical studies in Queen's University Belfast and held hospital appointments until he became Chief Tuberculosis Officer for Belfast and soon afterwards Director of Tuberculosis Services in Northern Ireland. For twenty years he was an enthusiastic proponent of collapse therapy, and even before the new chemotherapy hastened the natural decline in the tuberculosis epidemic he trumpeted the value of properly equipped chest clinics and generously funded welfare schemes. His garden at Hillsborough could not contain him in retirement; he set off on a slow boat to Japan in 1962, and returned to pen biographical sketches of famous consumptives until his death in 1975 at the age of 80.