Name
Maurice Richard Clift
28 Feb 1897
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
04/08/1916
19
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Dorsetshire Regiment
3rd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
I. A. 39.
France
Headstone Inscription
THIS IS HE THAT EVERY MAN IN ARMS SHOULD WISH TO BE
UK & Other Memorials
Aldenham School Memorial, Aldenham, Men of Bedford Park, London
Biography
Maurice Richard Clift was the eldest son of Alfred James Clift, and Beatrix Gaskell, born in 1897. He had 2 younger brothers , Rupeert Carr born 1899 and Dennis Victor, born 1901. All the boys were educated at Aldenham School, Elstree, Herts. Maurice was active in the OTC there, eventually being the Colour Sergeant as indicated on his application for a commission. He gained the Cambridge Matriculation and was awarded an Exhibition in Classics to Pembroke College Cambridge for 1915.
Maurice volunteered early on in the War, from University or soon after leaving school. He served actively in France from 1915 as a 2nd Lieutenant, being gazetted on 8th April 1915 originally with 3rd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment, but then attached to 9th Bn. Devonshire Regiment from 26 September 1915. He was wounded on 15th. October 1915, sustaining a gunshot wound in the right ankle, while in charge of a wiring party, which eventually needed treatment at Royal Free Hospital, London and a recovery period of several months.
On returning to active service, he re-joined the Dorsetshires, in its 1st. Battalion on 7th April 1916. The unit was situated in the Thiepval sector on the Somme. On 7th May Maurice was slightly wounded on a day that saw a fierce series of artillery-supported raids by the enemy on the Battalion’s defensive positions, but the wounds were insufficient to cause him to be taken out of the line.
On 30 June the Battalion moved up to the front line , and was placed in a start position in Authuille Wood, just SW of Thiepval. Maurice suffered his fatal wounds during the heavily-defended attack of the morning of July 1st in which the whole Battalion suffered grievously, being unable to achieve any of its objectives. Although Maurice’s medal card was modified to “K in A” with the date of 4th August 1916, he in fact sustained severe abdominal gunshot wounds on 1st July . His wounds allowed him through medical evacuation to 20 General Hospital, Camiers, where he died on 4th Aug 1916.
Rupert Carr Clift, served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Dorsetshire Regiment, embarking for France on 3rd October 1918, remaining there until 1919. From 1924, Rupert became a schoolteacher at Aldenham, He died in London on 24 April 1937.
Dennis Victor Clift died in Plymouth in 1977 at the age of 76.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Jonty Wild, Tony James
