Henry Francis Clifford was killed in action on this day in 1917
Henry Clifford was born 9 August 1871 at Frampton Court, Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire. He was the son of Henry James and Annie Frances (née Hilton-Green). At the 1881 Census, the 9 year old Henry was at home his parents, five sisters and five domestic servants. At the 1891 Census, the 19 year old Henry was still at home in Frampton Court.
He went to Haileybury College in Hertforshire from 1885 to 1888 (Allenby/Highfield House), then Christ Church College, Oxford.
In early January 1900, age 28, the tall, blue-eyed and blond Henry Clifford (detail from his Attestation Papers) enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry as a private. Within a few days, he was promoted to Corporal and the following month went to Africa. He served in the South African Campaign (1900-01) with the Gloucestershire Imperial Yeomanry and was awarded the South Africa Queen's Medal with 3 clasps (Cape Colony, Transvaal, Wittebergen).
His father died in November 1891. At the 1901, Census Henry was in Southern Africa. After the Boer War, he returned to Gloucestershire to run the Frampton estate. At the 1911 Census, he was living in the 18 roomed Frampton Court with his 66 year-old widowed mother and his three sisters and their three domestic servants.
On 12 November 1913, he married Adelaide Hilda Clay at St. Peter’s in Eaton Square, London. Their only child, Henrietta Hilda Elizabeth, was born 8 April 1917.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Henry returned to his regiment, the Gloucestershire Yeomanry, with the rank of Major.
On 9 January 1917, Major Clifford, aged 45, was killed in action at Rafa. Read here for an account of 'The Action at Rafa', a victory that ended the Sinai campaign of 1916. He is buried in the Kantara War Memorial Cemetery on the Sinai side of the Suez Canal. In 1920 a memorial tablet to him was unveiled in Frampton Church.
Major Henry Clifford, 1st Royal Gloucestershire Hussars