biology

Wilfrid Le Gros Clark

Wilfrid Le Gros Clark is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wilfrid Le Gros Clark rather than just read about it. In short: Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark (5 June 1895 – 28 June 1971) was a British anatomist, surgeon, primatologist and palaeoanthropologist, today best remembered for his contribution to the study of human evolution. He was one of three men who proved that the Piltdown Man was a forgery, and was Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford.

Key takeaways

Wilfrid Le Gros Clark belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wilfrid Le Gros Clark to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wilfrid Le Gros Clark from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir Wilfrid Edward Le Gros Clark (5 June 1895 – 28 June 1971) was a British anatomist, surgeon, primatologist and palaeoanthropologist, today best remembered for his contribution to the study of human evolution. He was one of three men who proved that the Piltdown Man was a forgery, and was Dr Lee's Professor of Anatomy at the University of Oxford.

Education Le Gros Clark was educated at Blundell's School in Devon and subsequently admitted as a medical student to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School in Lambeth.

Career After qualification he immediately joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a medical officer and was sent to France early in 1918. He caught diphtheria and was sent back to England to recover, following which he spent the remainder of the war as a medical officer at '‘No. 8 Stationary Hospital'’ at Wimereux in northern France.

Following a period in the Department of Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School he was appointed as Principal Medical Officer to the Sarawak Government. He was subsequently appointed as Professor of Anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, followed by a period as Professor of Anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School and finally, in 1934, he was invited to take over as the Dr. Lee's Professor of Anatomy (and effectively the Chair of the Anatomy Department) at the University of Oxford. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Le Gros Clark was also editor of the Journal of Anatomy between 1938 and 1945. In 1953, Le Gros Clark was one of three men (the others being Joseph Weiner and Kenneth Oakley) who proved that the Piltdown Man was a forgery. In 1960, Le Gros Clark was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1963, He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1961 and delivered their Ferrier Lecture in 1956. He was elected president of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for 1951 to 1953. Papers relating to Le Gros Clark, his grandfather the surgeon Frederick Le Gros Clark and his brother Cyril Le Gros Clark (former Chief Secretary of Sarawak, who was murdered by the Japanese in 1945 after a period of detention at Batu Lintang camp in Borneo) are held at the Bodleian Library (Special Collections and Western Manuscripts) at Oxford University. During his career Le Gros Clark published numerous papers on human evolution and palaeontology, and an autobiography.

References

External links "Sir Wilfred Le Gros Clark's Histology Demonstration Slides". History of Medical Sciences. University of Oxford. Retrieved 22 February 2013.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wilfrid Le Gros Clark

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wilfrid Le Gros Clark claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wilfrid Le Gros Clark before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wilfrid Le Gros Clark ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wilfrid Le Gros Clark

In research: Wilfrid Le Gros Clark appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wilfrid Le Gros Clark in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wilfrid Le Gros Clark is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1895 births, 1971 deaths, 20th-century British surgeons, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wilfrid Le Gros Clark outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wilfrid Le Gros Clark in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wilfrid Le Gros Clark means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wilfrid Le Gros Clark out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wilfrid Le Gros Clark in simple terms?

Why does Wilfrid Le Gros Clark matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wilfrid Le Gros Clark?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wilfrid Le Gros Clark.