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26 Jan 2024 | |
Written by Victoria Bastiman | |
Fondly Remembered |
Clive first attended Hymers in 1941 at the age of 11 when he became a member of form LIIIA and left in 1947 to become an articled clerk with A.J. Downs and Co. Chartered Accountants. After qualifying and completing his deferred National Service, he moved to London and joined a firm of Chartered Accountants there until 1956.
In 1956, he joined Brown Brothers as a Management Accountant at their Head Office, moving to Swindon when the accounts office was re-located there some years later. Brown Brothers was a company founded in 1889 dealing in cycles, cycle spares, and tools. This was the year that Dunlop rediscovered the pneumatic tyre and business was brisk. With the commercial production of motor cars, the business expanded rapidly as they became suppliers to the motor trade. In 1981, Brown Brothers was acquired, along with several other manufacturing companies in the UK in the same line of business, by Dana Corporation which at that time was one of the 160 largest industrial corporations in the USA. After working as Financial Director for several different divisions of the company, mostly in the Midlands, Clive was appointed and ended his working life as Financial Director for all the Dana Europe companies.
In retirement, Clive moved to a small hamlet near Broadway in the Cotswolds and enjoyed a quiet life. He was always very proud of his Yorkshire roots and keenly followed the fortunes of Yorkshire cricket and more so Hull City football club.
Clive had lost all contact with Hull and Hymers until 1993 when he was invited to a reunion of form LIIIA 1941 organised by Peter Raine who had managed to locate virtually all form members and was to coincide with the school's centenary celebration weekend. This was such a success that these reunions continued biannually until COVID-19 and old age put a stop to them. They were held in different locations across the country with visits to the school in 2001 and 2011 to mark 60 and 70 years of the form coming together in 1941. At the first night dinners, the school song was always sung with great gusto - much to the amazement of waiting staff and others who were dining at the time!
Clive enjoyed attending OH Southern Branch functions, meeting Headmasters who were so different from the Mr Cavill of his day, and hearing of all the successes and changes at the school. The renewal of those friendships formed at Hymers so many years ago, the reunions and lunches with those who lived within traveling distance in between, gave Clive a great deal of pleasure.
OH Clive Kirk, 25 November 1930 - 23 April 2023, aged 92 years