Notes
His biography on the college website (see references) states: ‘Meysey Clive was the elder son of Lt.-Col. P. A. Clive, M.P., and his wife, Alice Muriel Dallas. He was born in London. In 1911, the family were living at 21 Chester Street, S.W. and employed seven servants. He was educated at Eton and matriculated in 1925. He graduated with a 4th in History in 1928.
Shortly after leaving Oxford, he joined the Grenadier Guards and was ADC to the Viceroy of India from 1931 until 1933. He resigned his commission on August 25th 1934. It is presumed that he returned to his estate, Whitfield in Herefordshire, until the outbreak of war. He had been active in the Territorial Army Yeomanry in Shropshire but resigned his commission in this and returned to the Grenadier Guards with the rank of Captain.
On December 30th 1939, he married Lady Mary Pakenham, sister of the 6th and 7th Earls of Longford, her father was the 5th Earl of Longford, who was at Christ Church from 1881, and is commemorated on the memorial for alumni killed during the First World War. They had a son who followed his father to Eton and Christ Church, and a daughter. The Clives shared a passion for history and began putting together a book based on old letters and diaries which Meysey had found and had belonged to his great-grandmother, Caroline Clive.
Meysey was in the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards in the retreat from Dunkirk. The Battalion also took part in the North African Campaign in 1942 and 1943. Major Meysey Clive was killed on May 1st 1943. He is buried in the Medjez-al-Bab Cemetery in Tunisia. Plot 9. E. 12. He is commemorated in the Royal Military Chapel, Sandhurst and his name is on the MCC Roll of Honour.
Lady Mary, like her mother before her, was left a widow with a large house and estate to look after. She brought up their two children, alone, in Rabbit Cottage, the head gardener's house on the estate, whilst the Canadian High Commission occupied the house. After the war, in her typically robust, no-nonsense way, she pulled down two Victorian wings of the house, returning it to its original Georgian proportions. She was close to her sister in law, Elizabeth Longford, and like many of the Pakenhams, was a writer. She died on March 19 2010 aged 102. Her son had died in 1999.