Henry Francis Clifford - St Mary - Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire - Specific Veteran Memorials on Waymarking.com

Memorial plaque to Major Henry Francis Clifford, the former Lord of this Manor, who fell in action at Rafa, on the borders of Palestine. Jan 9 1917.

The memorial consists of a rectangular brass plaque with a coat of arms to the left and right. Fleur de lys are inserted between the paragraphs of the inscription with the capitals in red.

The inscription reads:
In loving memory of Henry Francis Clifford
Major Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Frampton Court
who fell in action at Rafa, on the borders of Palestine. Jan 9 1917
and was buried in the military cemetery at Kantara, aged 45 years

One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward
Never doubted clouds would break
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.

"Have Faith in God"

The second passage is from a poem called Epilogue by Robert Browning. It speaks of a man, of this man.

"Major Henry Francis Clifford, 1st Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was 45 years old when he was killed in action fighting at Rafa on the 9th January 1917. He and his wife Adelaide Hilda lived at The Grange and had only been married since November 1913.

Most dearly loved, he lives always in our hearts and memories

His wife’s words upon his grave at Kantara War Cemetery in Egypt. Kantara is on the eastern side of the Suez Canal and was used as a major base for excursions into the Sinai and Palestine, in defence of the Suez.

There is a kind of symmetry; from one canal in rural Gloucestershire to another of strategic importance in Egypt. He lies perhaps next to both, in body and memory.

The eldest and only surviving son of Henry James Clifford, he was educated at Haileybury and Christ Church College, Oxford. Major Clifford had previous fighting experience in the Boer War, had been wounded at the Orange River Colony and won the Queen’s Medal with three clasps. He was a popular local squire and magistrate. His only child, a daughter was born three months after his death in 1917.

Major Clifford died on the 9th January 1917 fighting in the final part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force’s attempt to drive the Turkish forces from the Sinai peninsula. The desert forces of the multinational EEF attacked the garrison of Ottoman forces; victory came at a cost. A heavy cost which included the death of Major Clifford. An experienced man on horseback, respected officer class – his absence would have been hard to replace. And yet harder still at home: for how do you fill the gap of a husband and a father?"

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