Killed in action aged 21
No known grave

Hugh Henshall Clifford was born in London, the only child of Hugh Henshall, a colliery owner, and Edith Irene Fanny Williamson.  He was educated at Eton and came up to Christ Church in 1912. His name is on a list of Inner Templars who served in WW1.

At the outbreak of war, he joined the Coldstream Guards with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and was gazetted Lieutenant on 21 October 1915. He was killed on 15 September 1916 near Ginchy in the Battle of the Somme and is commemorated on an Addenda Panel on the Thiepval Memorial.

Probate was granted to his mother of 61 Ennismore Gardens, London on 23 October 1916. He left £2,203-2s-2d.

It was especially difficult for his mother to accept the loss of her only child, and for several years she refused to believe it.  She made exhaustive enquiries - despite the fact that Private Harding stated “...he was shot through the head by a German sniper. Afterwards his body was blown to pieces by a shell that exploded in the ground where the body was, leaving no trace of him”.

The Williamson Family will always be associated with the village of Brown Edge, Staffordshire as they were great benefactors to the community, providing much of the housing and facilities for the community. They were the principal local employers at the Whitfield and Black Bull pits as well as the steelworks at Knypersley which provided much of the employment from the 1840s through the rest of the 19th century.