John Smith Clarke (4 February 1885 – 30 January 1959) was a British author, newspaper editor, poet, socialist politician, and lion tamer.

Born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, Clarke began performing in a circus at age of 17 as a lion tamer.

He was part of a group of Socialist Labour Party conscientious objectors called the 'flying corps' who evaded authorities and avoided prosecution.

He also continued to tame wild animals throughout his life; he demonstrated humane training methods in a lion and tiger cage whilst an MP, and brought a box of snakes to Parliament.

His father—also named John Smith Clarke (1844-1906), a cloth salesman from Bath, Somerset—and mother, Sarah Ann Chiswell (1844-1918) of Bishop Sutton, Somerset.

He recounted his experiences — including witnessing a murder and suffering a knife attack in Antwerp — in a series of articles for the Sunday Sun entitled Roughing it Round the World.

[1] He edited the party newspaper, The Socialist, from 1913 to 1914 and again for a period during the First World War with Arthur MacManus, Tom Bell and William Paul.

[1] The Socialist, in particular, was an anti-war newspaper that aimed to move the working class away from their patriotic support of the war by emphasising that it was a result of capitalism.

At the war's outbreak, Clarke wrote in The Socialist: "Our attitude is neither pro-German nor pro-British, but anti-capitalist and all that it stands for in every country of the world".

[7] During the war, he was part of the 'flying corps',[1] a group of conscientious objectors named as such because they would "fly" away from the authorities in order to escape being detained.

A network of these contentious objectors arose in locations including Hill Top Farm near Windermere, near the Clock Tower in Leicester and in Arleston near Derby—which, by 1916, had gained a reputation for being a centre for those opposed to the war, particularly SLP members.

[8] Members of the 'flying corps' would arrive at one of these locations, disseminate socialist information via public speaking or literature, and then leave to avoid detection from the authorities.

After being tipped off by a sympathetic policeman that he was going to be arrested, Clarke fled Scotland and spent much of his time during the war hiding in a farm in Arleston.

He spent much of his time in Parliament playing pranks and writing humorous epitaphs for political opponents who were not yet dead, including Ramsay MacDonald.

[1] In 1931 he wrote about the lack of humour in Parliament: "there are so few healthy, ribald laughs at Westminster that the building sometimes presents itself to the sensitive soul as one vast mausoleum".

[26] In his personal life, Clarke was a collector of historical items, including Marie Antoinette's snuff box and multiple torture instruments.

[28] He opposed the Performing Animals Bill, which would have required stricter regulations on circuses, believing that humane training methods were possible.

[37] Socialist and feminist historian Sheila Rowbotham wrote that Clarke's interpretation of Marxism focussed on the spiritual and material gains that revolution would manifest.

[1] His obituary in The Daily Telegraph, titled "Life in the Jungle", described him as "a refreshing character, and on the whole more rewarding than those whose experience of Socialism is confined to Winchester and the London School of Economics".

[39] In 1985, Tyne and Wear Council honoured Clarke with a blue plaque near his birthplace of Albert Street in Jarrow.