Unlike the various prominent personalities we have already described, Sir Bede Clifford came to live at the very heart of the village, in Queen Anne's farm, and he and his family are vividly remembered by many present inhabitants.

Bede Edmund Hugh Clifford was born on the 3rd of July 1890 in the South Island of New Zealand. He was the third and youngest son of William Hugh Clifford, later Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, and Catherine Mary Bassett, daughter of a New Zealander.

His father had emigrated to New Zealand and purchased a sheep station but although he was very knowledgeable about farming and animal husbandry he appears to have been rather a duffer at finance. When he eventually became bankrupt he moved to Tasmania. The family then moved from one unsuccessful sheep farm to another and Bede did not go to school until he was ten. However he soon became a star pupil and went on to a brief spell at Melbourne University, before joining a firm of surveyors and then becoming fourth officer on a tramp steamer.

When the Great War broke out in 1914 he joined the Royal Fusiliers and was commissioned. After being gassed he was invalided out and in 1917 was appointed aide-de-camp, and later private secretary, to Sir Ronal Munro-Ferguson, Governor-General of Australia. In 1920 the Prince of Wales visited Australia and Bede Clifford was awarded the M.V.O for his services to the Prince during this visit.

South Africa. In 1921 he went to South Africa to become secretary first, to Prince Arthur of Connaught, the Governor-General, and in 1924 to his successor, the Earl of Athlone. During his time in that country he was very highly regarded, especially by the Prime Minister of South Africa, Field Marshall Smuts, and in 1928 he was appointed as the first representative of the United Kingdom to the Union of South Africa. For his services in this post he was awarded the C.M.G. by the Dominions Office and later the C.B. by the Prime Minister.

Aside from his diplomatic career he also found time to be the first white man to cross the Kalahari Desert. It was presumably in recognition of this feat that he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

The Bahamas. In 1931 he left South Africa and was appointed Governor of the Bahamas becoming, at the age of 41, the youngest governor in the Colonial Service. Two years later he was knighted.

In October 1925 he married Alice Devin, daughter of John Murton Gundry, an eminent banker, of Cleveland, Ohio. They had three daughters: Anne (Frances Mary) was born in Cleveland, Ohio; (Patricia David) Pandora was born in South Africa; and (Alice Devin) Atalanta was born in the Bahamas. All three were renowned for their beauty and their wit and in due course married eminent men.

Mauritius & Trinidad. His was appointed Governor of Mauritius in 1937 and then, in 1942, in the middle of the Second World War, he became Governor of Trinidad where a major concern was the Battle of the Atlantic. For his services in this regard he was awarded the United States Legion of Merit, to add to his CB and KCMG.

After the War Bede Clifford retired on medical advice and was amused to learn that having been Commander-in-Chief and Admiral of H.M's forces in Trinidad he was entitled on retirement to be addressed by his Army Reserve rank of Captain.

Queen Anne Farm. He bought Queen Anne Farm at Jacobs Well, possibly because he and his wife were very friendly with the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, who at that time owned Sutton Place. Certainly there was much socialising between the two homes, which was continued after Paul Getty purchased Sutton Place.

He designed and partly built a studio (now Fagothers) where his wife and daughters could do painting and make pottery; later he and his wife lived there until his death in 1969. He was buried in the family vault at Chudleigh and his wife returned to the United States but she continued to visit her daughters at Queen Ann Farm until they split up the property and sold it in 1976. Lady Clifford died in 1980.