Clifton Edward Rawdon Grant Alban (1889– 1964)

Clifton E R G Alban was one of the surviving children of Clifton F S Alban and Florence L Bailey. He was born in Mhow, India on 4 December 1889 and was educated in England. He was a boarding pupil at Christ's Hospital School in London, a Church of England school. He was also educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

His most distinguished career began in 1910. After school he joined the “family firm” - the British Army in India - achieving his first commission on 20 April 1910. He served in the 1914-1918 war in the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, the South Staffordshire Regiment and as Lieutenant Colonel in the Lancashire Fusiliers. Later Clifton E R G Alban also attended Staff College at Camberley (1921-23).

Clifton E R G Alban held a number of distinguished positions in the British Armed Service, including Deputy Assistant Adjutant, (British) War Office (1932-1936) and Commanding Officer 1st Battalion, Kings Regiment (1936-1939).

During the 1914-18 war he married Evelyn Constance Mary Gomperz who had also been born in India, possibly of Anglo-Indian heritage. They had a son Clifton F R Alban, born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England about June 1920. He may have had siblings, still be living or have left descendants.

The career of Clifton E R G Alban culminated in his service to the King of England as Aide de Campe during WW2. He came out of retirement at the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he served as Assistant Adjutant-General, in the British War Office from 1939 to 1941 and then finally, Aide de Camp to the King. Major General Clifton E R G Alban was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1943.

He was a witness at the 1926 marriage of his sister Piercy R A Alban to Sidney F Allen.