C. L. Clifford

Sir Charles Lewis Clifford was born in Wellington in 1885. His early years were lived in England and he came out again to New Zealand when he was eight years old. He was educated at Marist Brothers’ School, Christchurch and St. Patrick’s College, Wellington, before he entered Lincoln in 1903.

Sir Charles Clifford was the third baronet, who succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of Sir George Clifford in 1930.

On being rejected from the New Zealand forces at the beginning of the war, he went to England and gained a commission in the Lancashire Hussars Yoemanry, and later served with the Lancashire Fusiliers and the 9th King’s Own Regiment with the Salonika army. He returned to New Zealand on sick leave and then went back to Salonika. He did not enjoy good health, the effects of enterie and malarial fever never leaving him. When the war ended, he joined his father a Stonyhurst, which he managed until he succeeded to the estate. Sir Charles Clifford was always keenly interested in yachting and shipping. On his father’s death he became a conspicuous patron of racking, and he was a steward of the Canterbury Jockey Club. He was also a director of the Christchurch Gas Company Ltd. Sir Charles was unmarried.

Following the traditions set by his father, Sir Charles Clifford typified all that was best in the sport of racing. Although he was a keen student of breeding when he succeeded to the title, he was not as enthusiastic in the actual racing or horses as his father had been. His decision to continue the famed Stonyhurst stud and the Chokebore Lodge stable at Riccarton gave immense gratification to the racing community, and it was not long before Sir Charles was displaying the fullest measure of his father’s enthusiasm for the sport.

He won the New Zealand Cup and the Auckland Cup with Fast Passage, which also won a Winter Cup. These were handicap events which escaped his father. Other important handicap races which his horses won were the Dunedin Cup (Wild Chase), Stewards Handicap (Paper Slipper), and the Jockey Club Handicap (Fracas and Trench Fight).

Sir Charles Clifford was a Life Member of the Old Students’ Association.