The Cape Bird Club

Stan Clarke – 17 May 1913 – 9 July 2005     by Otto Schmidt.

Promerops No 264 (November 2005)

Stanley Whitfield Clarke (Stan to all who knew him ) was born in the UK where he followed in his fathers footsteps and sought employment in the hosiery trade in Leicester. There he met Ida and they married in 1946. Their son Christopher was born in 1947.

In 1952 they emigrated to Cape Town and Stan started work at a new hosiery factory in Paarden Eiland. With a keen interest in nature, Stan decided to join the Cape Bird Club . My dad Rudolf Schmidt, remembers attending his first meeting, the 1952 AGM at Kirstenbosch. Because of the very wet weather, only 2 people turned up, the other being Stan. So was formed a friendship of very many years standing, with both of them joining the club soon afterwards.

Stan found himself on the Committee in 1954 where he wore a number of hats. He was initially a Recorder for several projects, Outings Organiser in 1960 / 61, Treasurer for some time from 1963 and became Co-ordinator Outings and Meetings in 1968. This post he held until 1987, when a change in Constitution forced him to stand down from the Committee after almost 20 years.
During this time, he very seldom missed an outing or meeting, arranging his annual holidays so that trips away did not clash  with CBC outings. Unfortunately after the mandatory year off the Committee he could not be persuaded to rejoin.
In recognition of his many years of service and dedecation to the CBC he was awarded Honorary Life Membership in June 1973.

I remember well the weekend camps alongside the Langebaan lagoon, initially at Skrywershoek and later at Bottelary Farm where the toilet tent, of which Stan was the custodian and which resided in the roof  above his ceiling in Pluto Road, Plumstead. This was a vital piece of equipment. As we lived two roads away in Plumstead, my parents and Stan and Ida did many birding trips together, travelling to places as distant as Ndumu in Northern Natal where they recorded their first Narina Trogan.

In 1973 Stan took early retirement from ICI (previously SA Nylon Spinners) whom he had joined in 1962 and once having realised that his time was now his own, he could fully indulge un his love of the outdoors. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Mountain Club, which nicely complimented his birding interests. Later, he joined the "Wednesday Walkers".

In 1983 my dad and I booked on a Seycelles trip and were very pleasantly surprised, to find Stan and Ida on the same tour to this beautiful spot. Three years later, I was with them on a CBC organised Penduka Safari to the Okavango Delta. So not only was Stan (with Ida mostly by his side) a regular on the local birding scene, his hobby also  took him further afield.

Stan joined the club a couple of years into its existance and as it grew through the Broekhuysen era, he was intimately invovled in its development. At the annual pre Christmas party in December 2002, Stan was the "most venerable" member present. He was then 89 and had been a member of the CBC for 50 years. His presence and dedication to the club transcended a generation  and many will fondly remember him. Our sincere condolences go to his son Christopher and family.

   photo by Otto Schmidt

  Stan on holiday in the Seychelles.