Peter (or John Peter) Cliffe was born on 15th June 1876 in Liverpool and baptised on 20th August that year in Daresbury. He was the son of James Cliffe (born Whitley) and his wife Mary (nee Clare) who was born in Stockton Heath.
In 1881 he was living in a cottage in Hatton village with his parents and his siblings William H. (3) and Mary E. (1). His father was a farm labourer. A year later the family had baby Percy.
Ten years later Peter had already left home at the age of 14 years and was working as a servant to William Darlington at Hillside Farm in Appleton. His parents’ family had by now been added to by Harry C. (5) and Flora A. (3).In 1897 they would also have James Frederick.
On 11th August 1900 Peter married Rosa Davies (who was from Whitley) at Warrington Parish Church. He worked as a domestic gardener and they lived in a cottage near Grimsditch Mill.
The couple moved to Hatton and were living there in 1911. Peter was working as a garden labourer and they had George James Percy (10), Alice Davies (7) and Peter (1). Another daughter, Mary E., was born in 1916.
Peter’s war service records showed him still living in Hatton in 1915, after which time he was enlisted and served under a series of service numbers. He was a private in the Welsh Fusiliers (62777 and 417389) and the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment, service number 104080). He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service in the Great War. It is not clear which theatre of war he served in.
In 1918 he was recorded as an absent voter in Hatton. He had returned home by 1920 and in the next year the family moved to Roadside Cottages in Stretton and then to Primrose Hill in Stretton where they lived for several years.
The 1939 Register recorded Peter as living with Rosa and son Peter and daughter Mary E. at Antrobus Cottages in Hatton. Peter was employed as a highways labourer, re-laying roads.
Peter died in December 1960, outliving Rosa by ten years. He was 84 years of age.