It is with the deepest sadness that we record the death of Clive Wilmer, Companion and former Master of the Guild, who was taken ill and died in Cambridge on Thursday 13th March 2025, aged 80. We send our sincere and loving condolences to his partner Patricia, his children Gabriel and Tamsin, and to all who knew and loved him. We give thanks for the life of a true Ruskinian.

The Master of the Guild, Rachel Dickinson, pays tribute:

Over the last few days, since receiving the sad news that Clive Wilmer has died, the final paragraph of Praeterita has been playing through my mind. It opens with ‘How things bind and blend themselves together!’ Ruskin draws on threads, memories of people and places – and a poet, Dante – whom he held dear, each indicative of the depth and breadth of experiences and relationships which shape a life and a community. Such patterns of deeply felt loss coupled with celebrating memories have been echoed in the many tributes that are flowing in from Companions, Ruskinians, friends. These reflections speak of Clive’s generosity, his poet’s voice, his sense of humour, and ways he helped others to see how Ruskin’s ideas are needed in our time. It is striking that so many mention specific memories of Clive: the first time, the last time or a formative moment in between. They bring to mind Ruskin’s words remembering a companionable meeting with a friend: ‘We drank of it together, and walked together that evening on the hills above, where the fireflies among the scented thickets shone fitfully in the still undarkened air. How they shone! Moving like fine-broken starlight through the purple leaves. How they shone!’

Clive served as Master of the Guild of St George for a decade, culminating in the bicentenary celebrations of 2019. Those celebrations and the years leading to them were shaped by Clive’s conviction that the Guild needed to DO. That it must be active, and ‘dig deeper’, helping to build a greater sense of community in Sheffield, Ruskin Land, the Companionship and Ruskinians. His vision transformed the Guild and the wider world of Ruskin.

I was honoured to be chosen to follow in Clive’s giant’s footsteps, becoming the fifteenth Master of the Guild. He set a path to follow. Many of the tributes to Clive note how naturally he mentored others and helped them to see possibilities. In the constellation of my memories of Clive, the one that, today, shines brightest is from a conference in 2012. On a magical evening in Venice, he and Robert Hewison invited me to join them for dinner at a tiny restaurant hidden away in the labyrinthine twists and turns of Venice. The conversation that flowed conveyed the urgency that Ruskin’s ideas matter now, the need for active engagement and for new generations to follow. That conversation helped inspire me to become active in the Guild. Clive invited me to become a Director in 2014, and I learned from Clive’s leadership for five years before he passed the torch.

As we reflect and celebrate Clive’s life and legacy, weaving our memories together, the final words of Praeterita seem apt: ‘and the fireflies everywhere in sky and cloud rising and falling, mixed with lightening, and more intense than the stars’.

Further down this page you will find two videos; the first is a recording of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed on Clive by the Ruskin Society of North America, and the second is the 2019 Ruskin lecture given by Clive at the Guild's AGM, his last act as Master before he retired. If you would like to listen to Clive's interview on the Ruskin Society's RUSKIN MATTERS podcast, you can listen HERE

Clive speaking at the opening of the great Ruskin bicentenary exhibition in London, John Ruskin: The Power of Seeing, in January 2019, which introduced many people to the breadth, depth and beauty of Ruskin's work and ideas for the first time, and showcased wonderfully Ruskin's gift of the Guild's collection, cared for and displayed by Sheffield Museums.

TRIBUTES

These remarks are drawn from some of the letters that the Guild has received from Clive's colleagues and friends. More will be added.

'My abiding memory was of meeting Clive in San Francisco where he had invited me to co-present on a number of Ruskin’s insights. At this moment I experienced Clive to be a world traveler, communicator and emissary for the gifts of Ruskin. I distinctly recognised Clive as holding something bordering on the sacred in unravelling the gifts, thoughts and insights of Ruskin himself. Clive treasured these as a gift from the UK, contributing to so many of the current challenges of our time.' AG

'I just wanted to let the Guild know how much I valued my time spent with the Collection under Clive's Mastership. Through the exhibitions and projects running during those years I know that I felt my own sense of its purpose grow and through it, my own joy in working with it grew tremendously too. Despite my few years of Ruskinian scholarship, Clive always considered and respected my opinions regarding the Collection, something that allowed me to grow in confidence too.' LP

'Working with Clive for the Guild over many years was a great pleasure. He was somebody who liked to say yes and activities and diversions came thick and fast under his Mastership. A particular highlight was the Guilds’ trip to Venice with over 50 guild members making the journey. He was so life affirming that all who knew him will feel his loss.' PM

'My first proper introduction to the world of Ruskin came in attending Clive's Mikimoto Lecture on Ruskin, Morris and Medievalism at Lancaster in October 1996, only weeks into my appointment as Curator of the Ruskin Library.  Although only a beginning in several respects, it felt like a homecoming.  Subsequent encounters in Cambridge, Sheffield and Venice were never less than enjoyable, always enlightening, and often fun.' SW

'Clive was, in so many respects , the best of us all. I counted him not only as a mentor and colleague, but as a dear and treasured friend. I am quite sure I am not alone in the sentiments. I console myself with imagining that, at this very moment, he and Mr. Ruskin are having a gentle chat together somewhere.' JS

'I remember being a rather daunted on first becoming a companion.  Clive was one of the first people I met and spoke to at that AGM.  He was so warm, open, interested and so welcoming, and continued always to be so whenever we met.  I think most notably, I always found him interested in everyone, he listened intently and always questioning to encourage.  He will be truly missed.' MC

'Writing from Venice, where Clive spent so many working visits, I have been thinking about him ever since hearing the sad news. I first became aware of Clive's work when reading his inspiring introduction to the Penguin edition of Ruskin’s ‘Unto this Last’; and recall meeting him in Cambridge towards the mid-1990s. After that, there were several encounters at Lancaster, following the opening of the Ruskin Library, and elsewhere. I’ll never forget his enthusiasm and generous support as I embarked on a book. Clive was a good friend and mentor to many people, and he will be deeply missed.' SQ

'I was so sad to hear the news as I found Clive, warm, compassionate, a great supporter of all things Ruskinian in Sheffield across the city, across neighbourhoods and enjoyed working him. He came to so many events and all the groups and people he met through Ruskin in Sheffield found him warm and interested in everything they were doing.' RN

'Along with countless others, I greet the news of Clive's passing with dismay and share the shock of profound personal loss. A Ruskinian world without Clive seems inconceivable. Conversations with Clive in 2014 led to the Ruskin Art Club's invitation to give our 2015 Ruskin Lecture at USC on Ruskin's use of language. It marked the beginning not only of a wonderful friendship but of the RAC's introduction to the wider world of Ruskinians. We were no longer stranded out there, Ruskin-wise, on the edge of the Pacific. Clive and I had memorable conversations about this -- his concern that the various Ruskin-oriented associations around the world find ways to connect with and amplify each other's efforts. It seems to me that we could erect no greater memorial to his memory than to continue to see our individual efforts, as Clive did, as part of a worldwide movement to bring Ruskin's insights to bear on the challenges of the age. In the short term, we are all left with Clive's irreplaceable loss; but, long term, with the provision of his dream.' GM

Fellow Ruskinians and old friends of Clive, Jim Spates and Stuart Eagles, have each written a fulsome personal tribute to Clive on their respective blogs. Read Jim's HERE and Stuart's HERE.