Edward Clive Rouse, M.B.E., M.A., D.Litt.

Clive Rouse was born in Acton, Middlesex, on 15 October 1901. The family moved to Gerrards Cross in 1910 and, apart from war service, Rouse lived for the rest of his life in the small Buckinghamshire town. He was educated at Gresham's School and St Martin's School of Art in London. At school in Norfolk he enjoyed browsing round the fine old churches within bicycling distance of Holt and, his art training over, he started work in 1931 on uncovering the murals in Little Missenden church under Professor E. W. Tristram, a pioneer in the conservation of medieval wall paintings. Pre-war, very little had been published in Britain on medieval murals and the knowledgeable amateur was largely unaware of their importance as an element in British medieval art history or as part of the national heritage. Tristram was working on the most comprehensive survey to date of English medieval wall paintings of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, published as the great four-volume English Medieval Wall Painting between 1944 and 1955, and Rouse proved an apt pupil. From Tristram he learnt the importance of making meticulously accurate watercolour drawings of the murals. To record each example many days had to be spent copying an often indistinct and barely accessible painting in an unheated church. By this process of patient, minute and persevering scrutiny, many aspects often became clear which were not obvious at first glance and Rouse developed to a high degree this faculty for interpreting the subject matter of fragmentary paintings, tracing out connexions and combinations to make a coherent scheme. But such exposition would not have been possible without Rouse's extensive repertoire of medieval iconography, much of it based on his reading of The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, first published in 1270 and `Englished' by Caxton in 1483. Uncovering and recording were followed by conservation and Rouse also studied the then accepted techniques of preserving wall paintings, but all such work had to be suspended when war broke out in 1939. Rouse served in the R.A.F.V.R. at the Central Interpretation Unit, Medmenham, from 1939-45 together with other archaeologists and art historians among whom he formed lasting friendships. The work involved not only the interpretation of reconnaissance photographs and the identification of sites, for which his experience in piecing together a whole picture from a few fragments was invaluable, but also advice on locations for the entry and exit of secret agents and for this nerve-wracking task Rouse was made M.B.E. in 1946. With the resumption of work on wall-paintings, he and his assistants spent much of their time remedying the effects of many well-intentioned pre-war conservation projects. Current research, and the evidence of his own eyes, led him to the conclusion that the impermeable wax coatings which had been applied as preservatives for the past hundred years had in fact been destroying the porosity of the paintings, resulting in their decay. Wax coatings had to be removed and new conservation methods devised, using the original material: slaked lime. In the early 1950s an international working party decreed that wall-paintings should never be waxed or varnished. Rouse was a gifted and entertaining lecturer and a founder member of NADFAS. Much of his work was educational, albeit in an informal sense; opposition to the conservation of a church's wall paintings was often vehement, not least from the clergy who frequently thought that hard-raised funds could be put to more practical use, but Rouse's gentle persuasion, couched in language the layman could understand, but never condescending, invariably won the day. To students and young people he never failed to offer encouragement and the present generation of medieval art historians are in his debt. His Discovering Wall Paintings, first published in 1968, is still used by laymen and professionals alike. It had run to four editions by 1991 when it was re-titled Medieval Wall Paintings, and reprinted in 1996. Rouse loved his work, though the financial rewards were modest by today's standards, and the physical privations and hazards he suffered would be unacceptable under current rules on health and safety. Nevertheless, he enjoyed generous hospitality from the village communities he visited and his knowledge of parish churches, especially those of the south of England, was unrivalled. He was president of the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society 1969-79, of the Royal Archaeological Institute, 1969-72, and was elected a liveryman and freeman of the Fishmongers' Company in 1962. His service on the Chichester Diocesan Advisory Committee for Fabric was recognized by a doctorate from the University of Sussex in 1983. Rouse published papers in Archaeologia and Antiquaries Journal; served on the Antiquaries' Council in 1943-4 and was a pillar of the Morris Fund Committee from 1945-87. He rarely missed a meeting, even when the onset of gout made ascent of the stairs tiresome for such a big teddybear of a man. In fact he was quite athletic; he rode a bicycle until well into his eighties, never having learned to drive; he enjoyed sailing, played tennis and golf (with a 12 handicap) and, as a gregarious batchelor, was a popular dancing partner. His collection of Chinese armorial porcelain was said to be one of the best in private hands, though he frequently gave away choice items, some to the Ashmolean Museum. To his local parish church in Gerrards Cross he donated fine pieces of altar silver, though he resigned as a sidesman when use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was abandoned. Shortly before his death on 28 July 1997, after sixty years of Fellowship, Rouse gave to the Antiquaries three portfolios of watercolour drawings of the English and Welsh wall paintings he had restored.