At his funeral one of Clive’s three daughters recalled the story that her father used to tell of how he failed his English A Level thanks to missing the final sheet of the exam paper because he didn’t think to turn over the page. As a result he missed 25 per cent of the questions. Whether this was true or not, it did mean his future lay in work rather than university.

That aside, Clive (1964 M) had a distinguished school career. Amongst other things, he took part in amateur dramatics. The Suttonian in 1965 reported on the production of the George Bernard Shaw play You Never Can Tell  and recorded that the performance of Clive as 'Mr Valentine' was ‘highly polished, articulate and convincing’. In addition to being C.Q.M.S in the CCF, singing with the School choir and madrigal group, he was awarded his 1st XV Rugby Colours, was Head of St Margaret’s House and Head of School.

On leaving school he taught for a year at a prep school and then joined Shell for a short time before joining Marks & Spencer at their Maidstone store. It was whilst working there that he met his future wife Sheila at a party held by Neil Barnes (1965 M). Neil was Best Man at his wedding and Clive reciprocated a few years later. Clive and Sheila had three daughters and Clive was particularly proud when his eldest daughter Paula, who followed him into the retail business, became CEO of the John Lewis Partnership before taking on her current role of CEO of The White Company.

After a short time at the Maidstone store, Clive moved to The Pantheon which was, one of two stores in Oxford Street, near Oxford Circus, and at the time a prestigious store in the chain and a training ground for up and coming young managers with its close ties to the M&S Head Office in Baker Street. He moved up rapidly to become a senior Departmental Manager and then Assistant Manager. His next major appointment was as the Deputy Manager at the Brent Cross Store which again was a very significant appointment under the eye of several Board Members. There followed a number of management appointments all in excellent locations with political connections. Following this he became a Divisional Executive responsible for a regional area of around 30 stores. He then had a period in Head Office including a spell as PA to the Chairman, who at the time was Sir (later Lord) Derek Rayner, who as well running M&S worked closely with Margaret Thatcher. He was sent to Canada to try and sort out the mess that business was in and this ultimately resulted in a closure operation. Following that he was made a Divisional Director in charge of Europe where again he was faced with substantial operational issues and in resolving them fell foul of the French authorities and for some years could not enter the country because of the risk of arrest. 

This summary of his roles, provided by an ex colleague, provides an idea of the breadth of appointments he held and the difficulties he had to overcome during a highly successful career.

After retiring from M&S he took on the role of CEO at Thames Valley Hospice, continued as Non-Executive Director at Moorfields Eye Hospital, became Chairman of the Board at Priors Court School and finally a Trustee at Stansted Place near to his home in Emsworth, Hampshire.

After leaving school, Clive remained a close friend of Andrew Dixon (1966 M), Jim Thompson (1965 Co) and Neil. All four continued to play golf together until very recently, despite Clive being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease about 18 years ago. Sadly his wife died in 2016 but Clive continued living alone until recently when, following a fall, he suffered a cardiac arrest shortly after being admitted to hospital. It was of great comfort to Neil and Andrew that they had enjoyed an excellent lunch with Clive reminiscing about old times just five days before he died.

(NB) We are grateful to Neil Barnes (1965 M) for supplying this obituary.