An experienced and popular Conservative politician, Kenneth Harry Clarke (born 1940) became Great Britain's chancellor of the exchequer in May 1993. Many observers predicted that he was destined to take over leadership of his party.

Kenneth Harry Clarke was born in Nottingham on July 2, 1940. The descendant of coal miners, whose grandfather was an avid Communist, Clarke was raised in modestly upwardly-mobile circumstances. His father was initially a colliery electrician and, after World War II, the owner of a watch repair and jewelry business. An intelligent boy, Clarke was sent to Nottingham High School, where he excelled in academics and won a college scholarship to Caius College, Cambridge.

Clarke's Cambridge career was a great and unlikely success. Despite an undistinguished lineage and an unprepossessing appearance, he was popular and admired for his incisive mind, frankness, sense of humor, and amusing conversation. At Cambridge he focused his interests and found his true...