11th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Abel Clifford was born in 1889 at Pinkney Sherston, Wiltshire. He was the eldest son of Robert and Edith Alice (née Jones) Clifford and the couple had six children, Abel, Richard, Edward, Alexandra, Bartimore and Christopher. At the time of the 1911 Census the family lived at Townsend, Nympsfield and Robert was shown as a ‘carter on estate’. Abel’s occupation was shown as a wood turner in a sawmill and he was a single man.
Unfortunately Abel’s military service record did not survive the bombing of London in 1940. However he must have been an early recruit. The 11th Glosters were formed at Abbey Wood, Woolwich in October 1914 and shortly after came to train in Cheltenham. However, the Gloucestershire Echo of 16 March 1915, when reporting Abel’s funeral, stated that he had been stationed at White City, London and he died in hospital at Stockwell, in the Lambeth area of London. Early in March 1915 Abel had contracted measles. In the days before mass vaccination (in the developed world at least), this disease could be a killer and indeed it is estimated that in the period 1855 to 2005 it had been responsible for about 200 million deaths, worldwide. He died on 6 March 1915, aged 25.
He was buried in the churchyard of St Bartholomew’s, Nympsfield, following a military funeral, attended by the Regimental Commanding Officer of the Glosters and the MP for Gloucester. His grave is marked by a standard CWGC headstone and is alongside his brother Richard Henry Clifford, of the Labour Corps (formerly Royal Garrison Artillery), who died of influenza on 14 November 1918.
Researched by Graham Adams 6 April 2015