Clive Radley

Clive Radley is a nephew of Sid Radley his family’s last boatbuilder. Clive was born in 1945, in Leytonstone, five miles away from the Radley Springhill boatyard in East London.

He is a 1966 Queen Mary College BSc (Eng) Aero graduate and spent his whole career in Defence Systems Consultancy after starting as a very minor part of the Harrier jump jet design team.

After retiring he began researching the roots of his family’s boatbuilding business and the history and origins of sonobuoys.

In May 2015 he self-published his first book The Radleys of the Lea – 130 years of boatbuilding and rowing which related the story of his families’ exploits as boatbuilders and rowers in the 19th and 20th centuries in NE London.

The Radleys of the Lea has its origins in the general family history research he began in the late 1990s and was inspired by memories of visits to the Springhill boatyard during his childhood.

He recently regained his MOD security clearance and attended a NATO ASW conference in Italy in 2016 as guest of Ultra Electronics.