Frederick Clifford

Frederick Clifford, KC, born Frederick Catt at Gillingham, Kent, England, was an English journalist, barrister and legal writer. He was fifth son of Jesse Catt and Mary Pearse. Before he was twenty, he started in provincial journalism. In 1852 he settled in London and joined the parliamentary staff of The Times, of which his elder brother George was already a member. At this time, both he and George renounced the name Catt and adopted Clifford as their surname.

He retained his connection with the provinces by acting as London correspondent of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, and in 1863 he became joint proprietor of the paper with William Christopher Leng. In 1868, Clifford helped found the Press Association, an institution formed to supply newspaper proprietors of London and the provinces with home and foreign news, and he acted as chairman of the committee of management until 1880. In 1877, Clifford was transferred by The Times from the reporters' gallery of the House of Commons to Printing House Square; he acted as assistant editor until his bad health caused him to resign in 1883.

In parallel, Clifford had made a position as a legal writer. He was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1856, and was called to the bar in 1859. Clifford's Practice brought him work at the parliamentary bar. He took silk in 1894, and was elected a bencher of his inn in 1900.

Source: Wikipedia