Born in Kensington, London, in the United Kingdom on 28 February 1888, Clarmont was the son of Francis Henry Bennett Skrine (1847−1933) of the Indian civil service and Helen Lucy née Stewart (1867–1954), and the grandson of the Revd Clarmont Skrine of Warleigh Lodge, Wimbledon.
In 1925, he and his wife, he made a journey into the largely unknown valleys of the Kungar Alps in Chinese Turkestan, during which he mapped, photographed and surveyed the country.
In January 1942 he traveled overland to Mashhad, Persia (near the Turkmen border) to become Consul General and remarkably took some film footage of his journey.
[2] British public records indicate he remained in post till the end of World War Two.
Later he was chairman of the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for Official Use and a partner in the firm of Mideast Guardians concerned with the placing of Iranian and other Middle Eastern children in British schools.