‘B’ Squadron, 1/1 Battalion, Gloucestershire Yeomanry (Royal Gloucestershire Hussars)
Henry Francis Clifford was the only son of Henry James Clifford and his wife Annie of Frampton Court, Court, Frampton-on-Severn. The Frampton Court estate had been in the Clifford family since the 11th century.
Born on 19 August 1871 Henry was educated at Haileybury College and Christ Church, Oxford.
He enlisted into the Gloucestershire Imperial Yeomanry and served in the South African War of 1899 – 1902 where he was wounded and commissioned in the field.
His father died shortly after the end of the war and Henry took over the running of the estate.
In November 1913 he married and was to have one daughter born three months after his death.
When war was declared he rejoined the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (RGH). With the rank of Major, commanding ‘B’ Squadron, 1/1 Battalion, his initial deployment was in East Anglia, where the battalion was tasked with guarding against a possible German invasion.
A transfer to Egypt followed in April 1915. Major Clifford remained there, in charge of the horses whilst the bulk of the RGH went to Gallipoli in the August to fight as dismounted troops.
The RGH returned to Egypt in December 1915 and in the following January became part of 5th Mounted Brigade.
On 23 April it saw significant action when a large Turkish force attacked Katia in the Sinai desert, about 25 miles from the Suez Canal.
By January 1917 the Turks had retreated north and an action was planned to eliminate a Turkish garrison of about 2,000 at El Magruntein, south west of Rafa (Rafah) on the border of Egypt and the ‘Gaza Strip’.
A force of about 5,000 comprising the 5th Mounted Brigade (which included the RGH), the Australian Mounted Division (less one Light Horse Brigade), the Imperial Camel Corps and a battery of the Honourable Artillery Company marched through the night of the 8th/9th and attacked at 7am. Ten hours of intense fighting followed before a well sited and strongly held Turkish position was overcome.
The Turks lost 250 dead and 1,600 prisoners were taken, before the British withdrew, as planned, to El Arish. British losses were 72 killed or missing and 415 wounded. Major Clifford was one of those killed.
Initially he was buried at Rafa but later re-interred at Kantara War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.
He is commemorated on the Frampton-on-Severn War Memorial and inside the parish church and on war memorials at Haileybury College and Christ Church, Oxford.
The Frampton Court Estate was inherited by his wife and latterly by the daughter that Henry never saw. Upon her marriage her husband changed his surname to Clifford to perpetuate the connection of that name with the Frampton Estate.
Research by Graham Adams