Edward Buxton Clive

Edward was born to Major (later General) George S. Clive (Grenadier Guards) and his wife Madeline at their home at The Bury, Upshire Bury, near Waltham Abbey in Essex. The family are distantly related to Clive of India, being descendants of his uncle, The Reverend Benjamin Clive. He attended Harrow school and then read history at Cambridge University from 1927, where he was also a member of the Officer Training Corps. He was a member of the University Conservative  Concert Party. In the 1929 Officer Training Corps Tournament he placed a creditable third with his companion in the half section jumping. He later went on to study at Frankfurt, learning to speak German, as fluency in a foreign language was a family tradition. Edward Clive joined the Grenadier Guards in 1931, the fifth generation of his family to do so. Indeed the regiment was not even known by this name when the first member of the family became an officer. He left the Army in 1935 to work in banking. His career came to an early end, when his bosses discovered he had taken a rather extended lunch break in order to ride as an amateur jockey in a race at Sandown Park. Unfortunately the result was reported in the evening papers and he was told not to bother coming back the next day, "We want bankers, Edward, not jockeys". As a result he became a stockbroker. His mother's sister had married Christopher Dawney, and it seems he was offered a post with his firm.

He married Rita Kathleen Robertson on 5 Oct 1940, their children John Edward Clive and Rosamund Louise Clive were born 1943 and 1944 respectively. He reported to be a among the judges at a horse show and gymkhana in the summer of 1943. In 1944 he retired as a partner from Dawnay & Co, a stockbroking firm in London. In 1944 the couple bought Swanmore Cottage as few yards from Pond Cottage which they had been renting, renaming it Swanmore Lodge and Edward remained there until his death.

After the war he set up a company called Clivedale with the express aim to blow things up! Edward reckoned that this was the only thing the Army had ever taught him to do and decided to put his skills to good use. During this period, as farming was being increasingly mechanised, fields were being enlarged. Blowing up the tree stumps of the former hedge boundaries was their specialist role. Sensibly he employed former members of the local Auxiliary Units in the firm, making use of the training he had passed on during the war.

In 1946 he returned to the City as a partner in Gerrard and Reid, Discount Agents. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on 31 Dec 1946. On 1 Jan 1947  establishing Clive Discount Company on Threadneedle Street, a bill brokers, which became a leader in its field. In 1959 it was listed on the Stock Exchange, a year after merging with Burn and Peace, a sign of its success. Edward ran the company until his retirement in July 1969.

Edward was an enthusiastic sailor, with his own dinghy. He was also the first treasurer of the Soil Association, the charity that promotes nature friendly farming and was one of the founders of the organic food movement.

He never spoke to family about his time in Auxiliary Units in any detail, holding to the Official Secrets Act he would have signed on joining the organisation.