Clive and Maggie Rosher: CND founder members

Clive Rosher died on the 15^th December 2011

Clive’s intelligence and idealism led him to campaign on more than one front, but for this Civilisation 3000 post the focus will be on his work for peace. 

Clive and his wife-to-be, Maggie Rosher, were founder members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, meeting on a march to Holy Loch, where the US Polaris nuclear submarine was based. They were sleeping in a tent somewhere in The Borders when the pier at the Holy Loch was torched. When they reached Glasgow they rented a small boat, together with others, and attempted to board an American nuclear submarine.

The Daily Mirror published a front page photo of Maggie taking a nose dive into the loch on the wrong end of a police-operated fire hose. Clive continued to be an active member and has left the bulk of his estate to the CND. They held very strong beliefs and never betrayed them.

Their hospitality was legendary, as were their meals. Maggie would take five hours to cook a meal and it would take five hours to eat it and then five hours to wash up. On numerous occasions there were waifs and stray of many descriptions sleeping on their couches. For many years they had a large CND logo on their bedroom door overprinted with the words ‘Make Love, not War’. It was not a joke. They meant it. 

Maggie, a long time Labour councillor in Coventry, was Lord Mayor in 1998/9 and Clive was her  secretary, chauffeur, lover and companion throughout.

She died in 2005 and three years later Clive’s leg was removed because of an embolism possibly brought on by passive smoking.

He fought back and learned to limp around on his wooden leg and still went to endless conferences, demonstrating in Trafalgar Square only five weeks before his last admission to hospital.  

They served their city, their country and this world well.

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With thanks for the information from family member, Coventry’s Colin Walker