Former Matthew Clark chairman Francis Gordon Clark dies

Francis Gordon Clark, a former director of UK wine agency, Matthew Clark, has died peacefully at home of lung cancer aged 85.

Francis died on 30 March at his home in Winchester. He was the great-great-grandson of the eponymous founder of Matthew Clark and a cousin of Michael and David Cox.

Francis joined the family firm in 1957 aged 22 and initially worked on two of the agency’s principal brands, Martell and De Kuyper liqueurs, both of which had been distributed in the UK with Matthew Clark since the company’s founding in 1810.

Francis did well with both brands and was soon made a director and then, in 1975, chairman of the company.

During his tenure, Matthew Clark took on many further agencies such as Taittinger Champagne, Graham’s Port, The Macallan, Janneau Armagnac, Jameson and Grand Marnier Liqueur.

A hugely respected figure in the UK drinks industry throughout the 1970s to 1990s.

He left Matthew Clark prior to it being sold to Constellation Brands in 1992.

He went on to become chairman of trade charity The Benevolent (now The Drinks Trust) which his cousin David Cox would also go on to oversee.

Andrew Hawes, managing director of Mentzendorff, worked at Matthew Clark early in his career under Francis’s tenure, following in the footsteps of his own father who had been Martell brand ambassador after also being Francis’s platoon commander at Sandhurst after the war.

Hawes recalled: “He was ‘old school’, an imposing presence with a natural sense of authority. A man of few words, none wasted, all well chosen. He was direct but always fair and looking back it now becomes clear that he was also always trying to guide and support us.

“After Matthew Clark our paths crossed again as he agreed to become chairman of a small wine agency company I became involved with.”