Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Lieutenant-Colonel C. Clifton, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who was Mentioned in Despatches during the Second War, and died in Malaya in 1953

1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, the Second War awards all privately impressed ‘33649 Major C. Clifton.’; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Malaya, G.VI.R. (Lt. Col. C. Clifton. Oxfs & Bucks.), Coronation 1953, unnamed as issued, nearly extremely fine, the GSM scarce to unit (6) £300-£400

M.I.D. London Gazette 14 January 1943:
‘For gallant and distinguished services in Iraq, Syria and Persia during the period April 1941 to February 1942.’

Cuthbert Clifton was born in Canterbury, Kent, 26 March 1906, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Arthur Clifton. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 3 September 1925, he was promoted Lieutenant on 3 September 1927; Captain on 2 August 1936; and Major on 3 September 1942. For his services during the early stages of the Second World War he was Mentioned in Despatches. Subsequently serving on attachment to the 1st Battalion, Essex Regiment, from April 1945 (who previously had been Chindits), he held the rank of Acting Lieutenant-Colonel from 25 July 1945 to 17 August 1945, and then later on in October 1945 with the 12th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters.

The 12th and 13th Battalions of the Sherwood Foresters had been sent to India where the 12th became a Jungle Training Unit providing officers and men for the 14th Army’s campaign in Burma and the 13th was converted to 163rd Regiment Royal Armoured Corps. They were both disbanded in India, the 12th Battalion in February 1946. Clifton was subsequently listed as ‘Lieutenant-Colonel in command 3 February 1949’, although what he was in command of is unknown, as the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Regiment did not serve in the Malaya Campaign. On completion of his period of service in command on 3 February 1952, he remained on full pay as supernumerary officer, and died in the British Military Hospital, Singapore, on 10 October 1953.