Clarke, Edwin “Eddie” J. (ca. 1908–ca. 1972), head bartender of the American Bar at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1939 and 1940, wrote three cocktail books and a valuable book on bar management and owned and operated the Albemarle Club, alias Eddie’s Club, in London’s Piccadilly. See Savoy. By his own account, Clarke started his career as a ship’s bartender in 1926, was a president of the United Kingdom Bartenders Guild, opened the first cocktail bar in Dublin, and was head bartender in London at the Berkeley Hotel, the London Casino, and the American Bar before serving as a captain in the Royal Artillery in World War II. In 1946 Eddie became head bartender at London’s fashionable Albany Club, leaving to open the Albemarle Club in 1954, which he ran until his retirement in 1970 or thereabout. Though he was well regarded by his peers and won at least one major cocktail competition, few of Clarke’s drinks have endured: perhaps his best-known is the Comet, a blend of brandy, Van der Hum, grapefruit juice, and Angostura.
See also United Kingdom Bartenders Guild (UKBG).
Clarke, Eddie. Shaking in the 60s. London: Cocktail Books, 1963.
By: Theodora Sutcliffe