Robert Bellamy Clifton

Clifton was educated at University College, London and St John's College, Cambridge where he studied under Sir George Stokes.^[2] In 1860 he went to Owens College, Manchester as Professor of Natural Philosophy. While there he was elected to the membership of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 22 January 1861. ^[3]

In 1865 he was appointed Professor of experimental Natural Philosophy at Oxford University. While at Oxford he designed Clarendon Laboratory and gave research space to Charles Vernon Boys. ^{[4] [5]} On 4 June 1868 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. He was president of the Physical Society (now Institute of Physics) from 1882 until 1884. From 1868 until his retirement in 1915 he was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.^[6]

Clifton's father was the clergyman Robert Cox Clifton. His daughter Catharine Edith was married to the surgeon Henry Souttar.