{{Short description|British businessman and politician (born 1929)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use British English|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Sir Jack Stewart-Clark | honorific_suffix = Bt |office1 = Member of the European Parliament <br />for East Sussex and Kent South |term_start1 = 19 July 1994 |term_end1 = 19 July 1999 |office2 = Member of the European Parliament <br />for Sussex East |term_start2 = 17 July 1979 |term_end2 = 18 July 1994 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1929|09|17}} | birth_place = Dalmeny, Scotland | death_date = | death_place = | spouse = Lydia Loudon | party = Conservative and Unionist | education = Eton College | alma_mater = Balliol College, Oxford <br /> Harvard Business School |allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} |branch = 20px British Army |unit = Coldstream Guards |rank = 15px Lieutenant }}
'''Sir John "Jack" Stewart-Clark, 3rd Baronet''' (born 17 September 1929) is a British businessman and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He represented the Conservative and Unionist Party in the European Parliament from 1979 until 1999.<ref name=europarl>{{cite web |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1384/Sir_JACK_STEWART-CLARK_home.html |title=Sir Jack Stewart-Clark |publisher=European Parliament |accessdate=20 March 2014}}</ref>
==Early life== John Stewart-Clark was born in Queensferry, Scotland. Stewart-Clark is the son of Sir Stewart Stewart-Clark, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Jane. Stewart-Clark was educated at Eton. He also attended Balliol College, Oxford, followed by the Harvard Business School,<ref name="record" /> after his National Service, during which he had been commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1948, serving in North Africa. He was appointed in 1958 to the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen's Bodyguard in Scotland.
From 1953 to 1969, Stewart-Clark worked with the family firm of J. & P. Coats Ltd in Uruguay, Canada, Spain, Holland, Portugal and Pakistan. In 1969, he joined Philips, and he was managing director of Philips Electrical Ltd from 1970 to 1975, and of Pye Ltd. from 1975 to 1979. From 1979, he served as a non-executive director of several firms, including A.T. Kearney and TSB Scotland.
== Political career == [[File:BaronetUK.jpg|thumb|180x140px|Baronet's neck badge]] Stewart-Clark stood in the General Election of 1959 as Unionist candidate for Aberdeen North, coming second to Hector Hughes. In the first direct elections to the European Parliament, in 1979, Stewart-Clark successfully stood in Sussex East, holding the seat until it was abolished in 1994. He continued as an MEP, sitting for the successor East Sussex and Kent South constituency until 1999. Within the European Parliament, Stewart-Clark represented the Conservative and Unionist Party, which was aligned with the European Democrat Group until 1992, after which Stewart-Clark sat with the Group of the European People's Party.<ref name=europarl/> Although sitting for an English constituency, he also acted as a representative of the Scottish Conservatives, who had no MEPs. He served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament from 1992 to 1997.<ref name=europarl/> He took part in several parliamentary delegations and chaired a number of initiatives, with a particular interest in the prevention of drug abuse, and subsequently became a trustee of the substance abuse group Mentor Foundation.<ref name=record>{{cite web |url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/business-consumer/dundas-castle-owner-sir-jack-2420042 |title=Dundas Castle owner Sir Jack Stewart-Clark on his drive to be a success |date=16 October 2013 |work=Daily Record}}</ref>
Stewart-Clark said in 2016 that he was in favour of continued UK membership of the European Union.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://m.heraldscotland.com/business/14323141.Leaving_Europe_would_be_a__plunge_into_the_dark___says_Scots_baronet/|title=Leaving Europe would be a 'plunge into the dark', says Scots baronet|website=Herald Scotland|access-date=2016-03-30}}</ref> Sir Jack said "We absolutely have to stay...It would be dreadful if we didn’t. It’s a plunge into the unknown."<ref name=":0" /> Following the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum of 2016, Stewart-Clark and the former Scottish Labour Member of Parliament Tam Dalyell proposed that Parliament should block the leave result.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/parliament-should-block-the-leave-result-political-grandees-write-3pmhxnd5q|title=Parliament should block the Leave result, political grandees write|first=Lindsay McIntosh, Scottish Political|last=Editor|date=5 July 2016|publisher=|access-date=29 March 2018|via=www.thetimes.co.uk}}</ref>
== Personal life == [[File:Dundas Castle.jpg|thumb|Dundas Castle in 2007]] In 1958, Stewart-Clark married Jonkvrouwe Lydia Loudon. Loudon is the niece of Jonkheer John Hugo Loudon; the great-niece of Jonkheer John Loudon, the Dutch Foreign Minister during World War One; and the great-granddaughter of Jonkheer James Loudon, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1872 to 1875. The couple have five children.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thepeerage.com/p58315.htm#i583141|title=Person Page|author=|date=|website=thepeerage.com|accessdate=29 March 2018}}</ref>
== Post-political career ==
In 1995, Sir Jack inherited Dundas Castle from his mother and began a programme of restoration. The castle, built in 1818 adjacent to a 15th-century tower house, had been bought by Stewart-Clark's great-grandfather, the Paisley thread manufacturer Stewart Clark, in 1899. Stewart-Clark and his wife, Lydia, now live in one wing, with the rest of the house rented out for weddings and other events.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dundascastle.co.uk/about-us-history.html |title=History of Dundas Castle in Scotland |publisher=Dundas Castle |accessdate=20 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909090702/http://www.dundascastle.co.uk/about-us-history.html |archive-date=9 September 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Stewart-Clark is involved with the charity Passion Trust.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://passiontrust.org/author/admin/|title=admin – The Passion Trust|author=|date=|website=passiontrust.org|accessdate=29 March 2018}}</ref> In 2016, Stewart-Clark gained approval from the Vatican to take a Passion Play, dramatising the last days of Christ, to the Opera Jail in Milan, Italy. Stewart-Clark has said: "[Prisoners] can become redeemed in prison, even if you’re never getting out". It was reported that Archbishop Leo Cushley was supportive of this project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/01/04/vatican-approve-passion-play-italian-prison-96199/|title=Scottish aristocrat to take Vatican backed Passion play to notorious Italian prison - CatholicHerald.co.uk|author=|date=4 January 2016|website=catholicherald.co.uk|accessdate=29 March 2018}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-reg|uk-bt}} {{s-bef| before=Stewart Stewart-Clark}} {{s-ttl| title=Baronet<br />''' (of Dundas, West Lothian)''' | years=1971–present}} {{s-inc}} {{s-end}}
==External links== *[http://www.dundascastle.co.uk/ Dundas Castle]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart-Clark, Jack}} Category:1929 births Category:Living people Category:Nobility from Edinburgh Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Conservative Party (UK) MEPs Category:MEPs for England 1979–1984 Category:MEPs for England 1984–1989 Category:MEPs for England 1989–1994 Category:MEPs for England 1994–1999 Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Category:Members of the Royal Company of Archers Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Harvard Business School alumni