Alan Ruscoe Clarke was educated at Haileybury College and Guy's Hospital, where he won the Michael Harris anatomy prize, the Wooldridge physiology prize and the general proficiency prize in 1928, and graduated MB BS in 1931. He held resident appointments at Guy's Hospital and clinical assistantships at Great Ormond Street, All Saint's and St Peter's Hospitals. Clarke was awarded a Leverhulme travelling fellowship in 1936 which took him to the USA. He held appointments at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston and the Harvard Medical School, where he first became actively engaged in research. Returning to England in 1938 Ruscoe Clarke worked at Mile End Hospital, and then was appointed first assistant in surgery to Grey Turner at the British Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith. There, during the air raids on London, he worked with an MRC team studying traumatic shock. He learnt much from Professor A K Henry who Clarke claimed was his surgical mentor. In 1942 he joined the RAMC and served throughout the North African and Italian campaigns. He reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was appointed MBE in 1943 for his work during the Tunisian campaign. Clarke joined the surgical staff of the Birmingham Accident Hospital in 1947. He applied what he had learnt in war to civilian accidents, was a pioneer in the use of large transfusions and advocated early and comprehensive surgery for the severely injured. He appreciated the need to learn more about haemorrhagic shock and the pattern of blood loss following injury, and he instigated research along these lines, building up a strong research team. Clarke became Secretary of the Institute of Accident Surgery in 1951; he delivered an Arris and Gale lecture "Prevention of shock and anaemia in trauma" at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1952. Ruscoe Clarke spent a great deal of time on politics. He directed his energy to such subjects as the abolition of nuclear weapons and testing, and towards world peace. He was an active member of the Socialist Medical Association and a leading member of the British Peace Committee. At one time on the executive committee of the Association of Scientific Workers, Clarke was a convinced Communist. He died suddenly of cardiac failure on 10 July 1959, aged 51, leaving a widow, two sons and one daughter. Publications: Prevention and treatment of shock and anaemia. *Ann Roy Coll Surg Engl* 1952, 11, 87. Closed abdominal injuries. *Lancet* 1954, 2, 877. Assessment of blood loss in civilian injuries. *Lancet* 1955, 1, 629.