Clark, Sir George Anthony (1914–91), Orangeman, was born 24 January 1914 in Belfast. He was the eldest son of Sir George Ernest Clark (1882–1950), deputy chairman of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), and was a grandson of Sir George Smith Clark (qv). His mother, Nora Ann, was a daughter of W. G. Wilson of Glasgow. Educated at Canford, Dorset, Clark joined the Orange order when aged 17, being admitted to the Eldon lodge (no. 7), which met at Belfast Orange Hall, Clifton St. (1931). Seven years later he entered the Northern Ireland house of commons in the Ulster unionist interest as member for the Dock division of Belfast (February 1938). During the second world war he served with the Black Watch, joining the British expeditionary force to France and being wounded during its evacuation from Dunkirk, when his ship sank. Later he was in North Africa and the Middle East. He remained a captain on the reserve list until 1964.
In the Northern Ireland elections of June 1945 he lost his parliamentary seat to Hugh Downey of the Northern Ireland Labour party; but in 1951 he entered the senate, where he remained for thirteen years. Clark rose to prominence in the Orange order: he was not only master of his own lodge but grand master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland (1957–69), the youngest ever elected, imperial grand president of the Imperial Grand Orange Council (1958–61) and imperial grand master of the Grand Orange Council of the World (1961–3). With the nationalist senator, J. G. Lennon (qv), he organised political discussions between the Orange order and the Ancient Order of Hibernians (1962), but they ended in failure, partly, according to his critics, because of his unyielding nature. From 1967 until 1972 he was chairman of the standing committee of the Ulster Unionist Council.
After the outbreak of disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1968, Clark sided with the more cautious elements of the unionist party. In 1974 he opposed the power-sharing experiment of Brian Faulkner (qv). From 1979 until 1990 he was president of the Ulster Unionist Council. Sir George (known to his friends as ‘Tony’) died 20 February 1991 at his home, Tullygirvan House, Ballygowan, Co. Down, where he farmed and bred horses. Faulkner, himself a horseman and a member of the Eldon lodge, described him as ‘a country gentleman of the old school’. He married (1949) Nancy, second daughter of George Wallis Newport Clark of Upperlands, Co. Londonderry; they had one daughter. The baronetcy he inherited from his father (10 November 1950) passed to his brother, Colin Douglas Clark (1918–95).