Transcript

of

The Rt. Hon. Lord Clifford [Obituary]

Trans. Devon Assoc., vol.  48, (1916), pp. 43-45.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.).

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1916 Plymouth meeting. A collection of Lord Clifford’s portraits is available at the National Portrait Gallery website. The collection includes a photographic print of Queen Mary and King George V at Ugbrooke Park with the Clifford family in 1897. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Lewis Henry Hugh Clifford, who died on the 19th July, 1916, was the ninth holder of the barony of Clifford of Chudleigh in the peerage of England. It was created in 1672, in favour of the celebrated Caroline convert, Sir Thomas Clifford, the "C" of the "Cabal" coalition, who resigned the Lord High Treasurership of England on the passing of the Test Act to the exclusion of Catholics. There is a tradition that his friend, John Dryden, wrote part of The Hind and Panther in Ugbrooke Park. The late baron was the eldest son of the eighth holder of the title, his mother being Agnes Catherine, daughter of the eleventh Baron Petre. Born on August 24th, 1851, he was educated at Stonyhurst College, took his B.A. degree in London University in 1872, and in 1882 was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple. In 1890 he married Mabel Ann, youngest of the four daughters and co-heiresses of John Towneley, of Towneley. By his marriage he became allied to a family which had been settled in Lancashire for more than a thousand years, and many members of which were men of mark. One formed the famous Towneley collection of ancient coins and statuary, which the British Government secured for £28,000. Another distinguished himself by translating Hudibras into French. A third, Francis Towneley, was so devout a Roman Catholic that rather than forswear his faith he went to the scaffold, and his head was impaled on the old Temple Bar that formerly stood where the High Courts of Justice now stand. It was a Towneley who in 1861 won the Derby with Kettledrum.
Lord Clifford from his earliest years recognized the duties his position imposed on him. He possessed considerable versatility. A keen sportsman, a good shot, and one of the best amateur actors in Society, he gave a large share of his life to public work. As a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Devon and a chairman of Quarter Sessions, he administered justice impartially with a decided leaning towards mercy. He further served his county as an alderman, and did excellent work as chairman of its Education Committee until failing health in 1913 compelled him to relinquish the office.
But, perhaps, the greatest service he rendered to his country was in connection with the Volunteer and Territorial Forces, for which he won his V.D. In the promotion of their interest he spared neither time, effort, nor money. He was lieutenant-colonel commanding the old 5th Devon Volunteer Infantry Regiment from 1881 to 1901, and honorary colonel of the battalion from 1903 to 1908, with the temporary rank of colonel in the army (1906). He commanded the Devon Volunteer Infantry Brigade from 1901 to 1908, and the Devon and Cornwall Infantry Brigade from 1908 to 1911, and was A.D.C. to King Edward VII for Volunteers from 1901 to 1910. When the Devon Territorial Force Association was formed in 1908 he became its vice-chairman, and had held the office ever since. When the war broke out he did not a little to promote recruiting.
Like many of his ancestors he was a count of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also a member of the Catholic Education Council, vice-president of the Plymouth Voluntary Schools Association, and chairman of the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, London. To him was largely due the re-establishment, after a lapse of several centuries, of Buckfast Abbey on its ancient site on the banks of the river Dart, and in recognition of his devotion and labours there have been added, according to old precedent, to the arms of the restored foundation the arms of the house of Clifford.
At his beautiful seat, Ugbrooke Park, he dispensed lavish hospitality, and among his many guests he had the honour of entertaining King George and Queen Mary and several of the leading musicians of the day, including Navidar Nachez, the celebrated violinist.
It should be noted that when Lord Clifford was called to the Bar, the old controversy as to the right of a peer of the realm to practise as a barrister was revived. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge ruled that as a peer was a member of the highest Court of Appeal it would be improper for him to appear as an advocate. Singularly enough the same question subsequently arose in the case of Lord Coleridge's own son when he succeeded to the title, when the Lord Chief Justice's ruling was reversed.
Lord Clifford became a life member of the Association in 1881, and held office as President in 1900, when that body met at Totnes.
Lord Clifford left no children, and the title falls to his brother, the Hon. William Hugh Clifford, who was born in 1858, married in 1886 Catherine Mary, daughter of Mr. H. Bassett, and has a son, Charles Oswald Hugh Clifford.