Sir Orme Bigland Clarke, 4th Baronet

Sir Orme Bigland Clarke, 4th Baronet CBE (8 October 1880 in Calcutta, India – March 31, 1949) was British lawyer and military officer.

He married Elfrida Roosevelt, granddaughter of James Alfred Roosevelt and Augustus Lowell, on 19 June 1905.

He was the son of Frederick Clarke and Adelaide Catherine Kerrison. He was educated at Eton College, Berkshire and Magdalen College, Oxford University. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, in 1906. As a lawyer, he worked under Sir John Simon for 8 years after being called to the bar.

He was invested as a Commander, Order of the British Empire (CBE). He succeeded to the title of 4th Baronet Clarke, of Dunham Lodge, Norfolk, on 22 April 1932 from his uncle General Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke, 3rd Baronet GCB GCVO (13 December 1839 - 22 April 1932).

Sir Orme is credited with helping implement the foundation of the Palestinian Legal system. According to Dan Izenberg in his article: "Founding Father"(see Sources), author Natan Brun writes in his "Judges and Jurists in the Land of Israel" that Clarke was responsible for a large part of the legal framework. Izenburg states that "the seeds of the modern Supreme Court were sown on December 9, 1917, when Allenby entered Jerusalem and declared martial law." Clarke, who had enlisted in 1916, had been in the Middle East in 1914 before war broke out as an adviser to the Ottoman Empire. When he was enlisted he was sent to Cairo then onto Jerusalem where Allenby appointed Clarke as the man to implement a judicial system. Izenberg states that according to Brun: "he served as minister of justice, legal adviser to the government and chief prosecutor."

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