Frederick CLIFTON (1894–1919)
Frederick Clifton was born in Stanton Harcourt in 1894, the son of Edward Clifton (born in Standlake on 6 June 1871) and Emily Gammage (born in Middle Barton on 16 October 1870). His parents were married in 1893, and Frederick, their only child, was born the following spring:
- Frederick Clifton (born in Stanton Harcourt on 29 April 1894).
The 1901 census shows Frederick, aged seven, living with his parents in a cottage in Besselsleigh, with his father working as a carter on a farm.
By 1911 the family had moved to Laundry Cottage, Hook End Lane, Upper Basildon, Reading. Frederick (16) was now working as an under-carter, and his father was still a carter.
In the First World War Frederick Clifton served as a Stoker (1st Class) in the Royal Navy on the submarine H.M.S L55 (Service No. K/18374). On 4 June 1919 (some accounts say 9 June) the L55 was sunk while in action in the Baltic against two Bolshevik destroyers: the Bolsheviks claimed they had sunk her, but it is more likely that she actually hit a British-laid mine.
The wreck of the L55 was found by Soviet minesweepers in 1927, and the Soviets raised her on 11 August 1928. The remains of 34 crew members (including Clifton) were returned on the British merchantman Truro before transfer to HMS Champion because the Russians refused to allow any British warship into their waters. The crew was buried in a communal grave at Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Portsmouth on 7 September 1928. Clifton is named on a Screen Wall Memorial at that cemetery, and also remembered on the war memorial outside St Peter’s Church at Wootton.
HMS Champion arriving home in Portsmouth on 5 September 1928 with the remains of the crew of HMS L55
POSTSCRIPT
Frederick Clifton’s parents
At the time of the 1921 census Edward Clifton (49) was working as a horseman for the farmer John Hay at Middle Farm, Wootten and living at Boars Hill with his wife Emily (48). At the time of the 1939 Register Edward was a farm carter, living at Hardwick near Witney with Emily.
Emily Clifton died at Hardwick, Oxfordshire at the age of 75 on 21 December 1947. Her effects came to £214 4s. 6d, and her husband Edward, described as a retired farm labourer, acted as her executor. Edward Clifton died at the age of 84 near the beginning of 1956.
See also
- CWGC: Clifton, Frederick (confirmed as this particular man by FindMyPast, which adds the line:
“Relatives notified: Mother, Emily, Wootton, Boars Head [sic], Nr. Oxford”. - Wikipedia: HMS L55