Sir John Stewart-Clark, 3rd Baronet, died 22 June, 2026. He was 96.
The baronet, always known as Jack, was a businessman and Conservative and Unionist Party politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1999, including as its Vice-President from 1992 to 1997.
He was born 17 September 1929, son of Sir Stewart Stewart-Clark, 2nd Baronet (1904-1971), and his wife the former Jane Pamela Clarke (who died in 1993); and succeeded to the baronetcy, 1 December, 1971.
He married 16 July 1958, Jonkvrouwe Lydia Frederika Loudon (1936-2025) daughter of Jonkheer James Willem Loudon (1904-1973), by whom he had a son, Alexander, and three daughters, Daphne, Nadia, and Zarina.
In 1948 Stewart-Clark was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards, serving in North Africa during his national service. In 1958 he was appointed to the Royal Company of Archers, the monarch's bodyguard in Scotland.
Sir Jack stood as a Unionist candidate for Aberdeen North in the 1959 election, coming second behind Hector Hughes. In Britain's first direct elections to the European Parliament, in 1979, Stewart-Clark was elected as an Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Sussex East, holding the seat until it was abolished in 1994. He continued to sit as an MEP for the East Sussex and Kent South constituency until 1999. In the European Parliament he represented the Conservative and Unionist Party, which was aligned with the European Democrat Group until 1992, after which he sat with the Group of the European People's Party. Although sitting for an English constituency, he also acted as a representative of the Scottish Conservatives, who had no MEPs. He was a Vice-President of the European Parliament from 1992 to 1997. 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.
In 1995 Stewart-Clark 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 his great-grandfather, the Paisley thread manufacturer Stewart Clark, in 1899. Stewart-Clark lived in one wing, while the rest of the house was rented out for weddings and other events.
He is succeeded in the baronetcy by his only son, Alexander (born 21 November, 1960).
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