KEEN fell walker, Carlisle United fan and former Windermere man Dr David Clark, 61, has taken his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Clark of Windermere.

The gardener's son attended Bowness Boys School and Windermere Grammar School between 1951 and 1956.

He began his working life aged 16 as a forest worker with Bowness forestry firm Mould and Bloomer, and then worked for a textile firm in Lancaster before entering the University of Manchester as a mature student where he gained his BA and MSc, and later he gained a PhD.

He lectured at Salford and Manchester universities before being elected in 1970 as Labour MP for Colne Valley.

He moved to become MP for South Shields in 1979 where he sat for 22 years until the recent General Election, when he stood down.

Once described as "the first green politician of any party to reach the front bench in the Commons", he occupied the front bench for 21 years, and joined the Cabinet in 1997 as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

He took " wry pleasure" in administering the Queen's estates in the North, especially having responsibility for Lancaster Castle.

Recently he has been chairman of the All-Party National Parks Group and the Forestry Group, and has sat in NATO's Parliament for almost 20 years.

He continues to take an interest in Cumbria, being a life member of the Friends of the Lake District and the National Trust, and vice-president of the Northern Ramblers Association.

He is only six summits short of completing the peaks in the Wainwright books, and rarely misses a home match of Carlisle United, where he was recently involved in the formation of the new Supporters Club.

Lord Clark married Christine (nee Kirkby) from a well-known Grasmere family, and their daughter Catherine is an archivist with Cumbria County Council.