Henry Lowther Clarke (23 November 1850 – 23 June 1926) was the fourth Anglican bishop and first archbishop of Melbourne, Australia.
He was educated at home and at Sedbergh School, winning a scholarship which took him to St John's College, Cambridge, graduated BA in 1874 as seventh wrangler and MA in 1877.
[4] He was consecrated Bishop by the Archbishop of Canterbury in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on 1 November 1902,[5] and arrived in Melbourne in February 1903.
When Clarke began his ministry he appointed a commission to document the present position and future needs of the diocese and later came to the conclusion that certain parishes had become too large and needed subdividing, that means must be found for a more complete training of the clergy, and that there must be an extension of secondary education by means of church schools.
Recognising that what may be called the puritanical and the aesthetic types of mind are permanent in human nature, he felt that the safest approach would be found in a middle course, and that no good would be done by straining for uniformity in minor issues.
His published writings include History of the Parish of Dewsbury (1899), Addresses delivered in England and Australia (1904), The Last Things (1910), Studies in the English Reformation (1912), Addresses delivered to the Synod of the Diocese of Melbourne (1914), The Constitutions of the General Provincial and Diocesan Synods of the Church of England in Australia (1918), Constitutional Church Government in the Dominions Beyond the Seas (1924), an authoritative and comprehensive work; Death and the Hereafter (1926) and, with W. N. Weech, History of Sedbergh School (1925).