John Talbot Clifton (1 December 1868 – 23 March 1928), known as Talbot Clifton, was an English landowner and traveller. He was born the son of Thomas Henry Clifton of

Lytham Hall Lytham Hall is an 18th-century Georgian country house in Lytham, Lancashire, from the centre of the town, in of wooded parkland. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, the only on ...

, Lancashire and his wife Madeline Agnew and was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

. He succeeded his grandfather,

John Talbot Clifton John Talbot Clifton (1 December 1868 – 23 March 1928), known as Talbot Clifton, was an English landowner and traveller. He was born the son of Thomas Henry Clifton of Lytham Hall, Lancashire and his wife Madeline Agnew and was educated at Eton ...

(1819–1882), who had been MP for Lancashire and

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient office, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanca ...

for 1853, as owner of the Lytham estate at the age of 14. He became a compulsive traveller who explored Canada, Siberia, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, Africa and South America, and was known for shooting wild animals and eating them. Some of the animals he shot were species new to science and were named after him, such as a type of wild Siberian sheep (Clifton's bighorn) and a Canadian marmot. He once dined on mammoth recovered frozen from the Arctic permafrost. He married Violet Mary, the daughter of William Nelthorpe Beauclerk and granddaughter of the

William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans (18 December 1766 – 17 July 1825) was an English aristocrat. Early life and career William was born on 18 December 1766. He was the second son of Lady Catharine Ponsonby and Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duk ...

on 1 February 1907 at

Brompton Oratory Brompton Oratory, also known as the London Oratory, is a neo-classical late-Victorian Catholic parish church in the Brompton area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, neighbouring Knightsbridge, London. Its name stems from Oratorian ...

. They had met in Peru, where she was also travelling. They lived at Lytham Hall and had two sons and three daughters. Talbot served as a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire. After the First World War, during which Talbot had volunteered as a dispatch driver, the couple bought Kylemore House in

Connemara Connemara ( ; ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. There he shot and injured a member of the IRA in an argument over the requisition of his car. In 1922 they bought and moved to live at

Kildalton Castle Kildalton Castle is a ruined Victorian country house near Port Ellen on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides, Argyll, Scotland. It was built in ashlar in 1870 to a rambling plan in the Scots baronial style. Although roofs have fallen in the ...

on the Scottish island of

Islay Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll and Bute just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's cap ...

in the Inner Hebrides where his passion for shooting wildlife continued unabated. After several more foreign expeditions he set off on a final journey to

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

with his wife, but fell ill en route. They turned back in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

but in 1928 he died in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

on the way home. Violet had his body embalmed and took it back to Scotland for burial at Cnoc Rhaonastil. She later wrote a biography of her husband, published under the title The ''Book of Talbot'', which won the 1933

James Tait Black Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

References

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, John Talbot 1868 births 1928 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge English landowners English explorers