Clifford, Hugh
(1866–1941), colonial administrator of Malaya. Hugh Charles Clifford, one of the most outstanding colonial administrators of Malaya, had a deep understanding and affection for the Malays. Born in England and educated at Woburn Park, in 1883 he qualified for Sandhurst with a Queen's cadetship, but instead joined the administration of the western peninsular Malay state of Perak.
Clifford became British Agent (1887–1888) and was Resident from 1896 to 1899, and again in 1901. He also held high colonial posts in North Borneo, Trinidad, Ceylon, Ghana, and Nigeria before returning to Malaya as Governor and High Commissioner (1927–1929). But the country was suffering the collapse of rubber and tin prices and the onset of the Great Depression, and Clifford himself was gravely tired. He later suffered a mental breakdown and had to retire in 1930.
Clifford was forthright and impetuous, sympathetic to the peasantry but highly critical of the traditional Malay political structure that he felt victimized the lower classes. He was a prolific writer, and his novel A Prince of Malaya (1926) was reprinted in 1989 as Saleh: A Prince of Malaya.
Further Reading
Aruna, Gopinath. (1991) Pahang 1880–1933: A Political History. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Allen, J. de V. (1964) "Two Imperialists: A Study of Sir Frank Swettenham and Sir Hugh Clifford." Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 37, 1: 31–73.
Clifford, Hugh. (1897) In Court and Kampong, Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula. London: Grant Richards.
——. ([1926] 1989) A Prince of Malaya. New York: Harper. Reprinted as Saleh: A Prince of Malaya. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
Gailey, Henry A. (1982) Clifford: Imperial Proconsul. London: Collings.
Gullick, J. M. (1992) Rulers and Residents: Influence and Power in the Malay States, 1870–1920. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
Linehan, W. (1973) A History of Pahang. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Reprint No. 2.
Stockwell, A. J. (1976) "Sir Hugh Clifford's Early Career (1866–1903) as Told from His Private Papers." Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 49, 1: 89–112.
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