Hugh Clifford

Infobox_Officeholder
honorific-prefix =
name = Sir Hugh Charles Clifford
honorific-suffix =
GCMG GBE


birth_date =birth date|1866|3|5|df=y
birth_place =Roehampton, London, England, GBR
death_date =death date|1941|12|18|df=y
death_place =Roehampton, London, England, GBR
spouse = Minna Beckett, married 15 April 1896, three children
party=None
religion=Catholic|

Sir Hugh Charles Clifford GCMG GBE (5 March 1866–18 December 1941) was a British colonial administrator.

Early life

Clifford was born in Roehampton, London, the sixth of the eight children of Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Clifford and his wife Josephine Elizabeth, née Anstice; his grandfather was Hugh Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.

Family

Clifford married Minna Beckett, daughter of Gilbert Beckett, on 15 April 1896, and they had one son and two daughters: Hugh Gilbert Francis Clifford, Mary Agnes Philippa and Monica Elizabeth Mary.

Minna died on 14 January 1907. On 24 September 1910 he married Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle Bonham, daughter of Edward Bonham.

Career

Clifford intended to follow his father, a distinguished colonial general, into the British Army, but later decided to join the civil service in the Straits Settlements, with the assistance of his relative Sir Frederick Weld, the then Governor of the Straits Settlements and also the British High Commissioner in Malaya. He was later transferred to the British Protectorate of the Federated Malay States. Clifford arrived in Malaya in 1883, at the age of 17.

He first became a cadet in the State of Perak. During his twenty years in Perak, Clifford socialised with the local Malays and studied their language and culture deeply. He served as British Resident at Pahang, 1896–1900 and 1901–1903, and Governor of Labuan, 1900–1901.

In 1903, he left Malaya to take the post of Colonial Secretary of Trinidad. Later he was appointed Governor of the Gold Coast, 1912–1919, Nigeria, 1919–1925, and Ceylon, 1925–1927. He continued to write stories and novels about Malayan life. His last posting was as Governor of the Straits Settlements and British High Commissioner in Malaya from 1927 until 1930. He wrote "Farther India", which chronicles European explorations and discoveries in Southeast Asia.

Honours

Clifford was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1909, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 1921 Birthday Honours, [LondonGazette |issue=32346 |date=4 June 1921 |startpage=4533 |endpage= |supp=yes] and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1925.

Clifford died peacefully on 18 December 1941 in his birthplace, Roehampton, while his wife Elizabeth Bonham died on 30 October 1945.

Footnotes

References

* [http://hids.arkib.gov.my/doc/2004/dis/18_12_1941_2004.htm Biografi Clifford]
*Clifford, Hugh (1989) "In Court and Kampung". Singapore : Graham Brash (Pte.) Ltd. ISBN: 9971491990 :First published as: "East coast etchings". Singapore : Straits Times Press, 1896.
*Clifford, Hugh (1993) "At the court of Pelesu and other Malayan stories". Kuala Lumpur : Oxford University Press, 1993.
*Clifford, Hugh (1992) "Report of an expedition into Trengganu and Kelantan in 1895". Kuala Lumpur : MBRAS.:"First published in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, v. 34 pt. 1 in 1961" --T.p. verso. ::"An expedition to Kelantan and Trengganu : 1895"--cover title.
*Clifford, Hugh (1989) "Saleh : a prince of Malaya". Singapore : Oxford University Press.:Originally published: "A prince of Malaya". New York : Harper & Brothers, 1926.
*Clifford, Hugh (1978) "Journal of a mission to Pahang : January is to April 11, 1887". Honolulu : University of Hawaii, Southeast Asian Studies Program.
*Clifford, Hugh (1970) "In a corner of Asia; being tales and impressions of men and things in the Malay Peninsula". Freeport, N.Y. : Books for Libraries Press.
*Clifford, Hugh (1966) "Stories by Sir Hugh Clifford". Kuala Lumpur : Oxford University Press.
*Cowan, C. D. (Charles Donald)(1961) "Nineteenth-century Malaya : the origins of British political control". London : Oxford University Press.
*Swettenham, Frank Athelstane (1907), "British Malaya: an account of the origin and progress of British influence in Malaya". London : John Lane the Bodley Head.
*Gailey, Harry A. (1982) "Clifford, imperial proconsul". London : Rex Collings.
*Holden, Philip (2000) "Modern subjects/colonial texts : Hugh Clifford & the discipline of English literature in the Straits Settlements & Malaya, 1895-1907". Greensboro, NC : ELT Press.