Clive Bourne

Background

Clive Bourne was born in a Stoke Newington hospital, but his family was from Ilford. His father, Moss Bourne, was a founder of Ilford Synagogue.

Education

He was educated at William McEntee School, Walthamstow but left school at 15, and worked in an import-export business.

Career

He realised the need to speed up deliveries between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, and in 1962 set up an overnight parcel service, Seabourne Express Courier. His success meant that he was attacked by the Arab Boycott Office, which demanded that he stop services to Israel. He refused. He helped to build Kent International Airport"s passenger terminal, and when it opened in 1989 he named the Very Important Person lounge after local Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore.

Sir Clive always used his wealth to assist Jewish and other charities.

Following his diagnosis with prostate cancer in 1991, he founded the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation. In 1996, he helped to found the Museum of Docklands.

A gallery is named after his mother-in-law, Esther Ingram. In 2002, he bought Hackney Downs School (which had closed in 1995) and engaged Sir Richard Rogers to convert it into a city academy.

lieutenant is called Mossbourne Community Academy in memory of his father.

He took a close interest in it, and visited frequently. He was knighted in 2005. He was a Justice of the Peace in the London Borough of Newham from 1990 (chairman, 1995).

He claimed to have the United Kingdom’s largest collection of inkwells.

He died of prostate cancer.

Achievements

• lieutenant became one of the largest firms of its type, and won Queen"s Awards for export achievement in 1981 and 1988. He was a founder patron of Jewish Care and a founder and governor of King Solomon High School, Barkingside.