Clive Thornton, Abbey National Chief Executive Officer 1978-1983

Born in Newcastle, Clive left school aged 14 and worked as an office boy at a solicitor’s firm. After a year, he had a serious accident and had one leg amputated, but continued to work there, so that he could become a solicitor. The expense of buying into a firm and taking articles was beyond his reach, so at the age of 23, he applied for a job as a managing clerk in a London company that was setting up a legal department; they agreed that he could train as a solicitor while by studying on a correspondence course; he did so and when qualified, applied for a job with a merchant bank in the City. After about four years there, in 1967 a post came up at Abbey National; who were setting up a legal department. Clive applied for the role of Chief Solicitor, to which he was appointed in May 1967. There, he set up the department, and within the first six months introduced radical reforms to their legal procedures. Very soon, Milton Keynes arrived on the company’s agenda as a possible headquarters site.
In 1983 Clive left Abbey National (having spent five years as C.E.O.) when he was invited to chair Mirror Group newspapers & float the company. When the Group was sold to Robert Maxwell, rather than floated, Clive resigned. After that, he chaired and managed Thamesmead Town council estate for five years, enduring multiple political meetings and disputes. (While still at the Abbey, Clive was able to work with builders Barratt’s on the development of Stockbridge Village, Liverpool after the riots in 1981.)