[3] Like all civil servants until the introduction of Competitive examinations in the 1850s, Clerk had studied at Haileybury College in Hertfordshire, being posted to Bengal as a writer in 1817.
He thus worked as an Assistant to the President in Rajputana and Delhi, before being posted as Political Agent at Ambala and subsequently at Ludhiana in 1839 and Lahore in 1840.
After this, like a lot of eminent personnel in the civil and military line, he was appointed as a member of the Council of India.
[4] He died in London at his residence, 33 Elm Park Gardens, on 25 July 1889.
[5] In 1827, Clerk married Mary (died 26 November 1878), widow of Colonel Stewart.