Lieutenant Clement Wattson Payton DFC (13 April 1897 – 2 October 1918) was an English World War I flying ace credited with 11 official victories.
His older brother, Corporal Frederick Thomas Croydon Payton, 5th Battalion, Special Brigade, Royal Engineers, was killed in action on 1 July 1916, and is buried in the Carnoy Military Cemetery, Somme, France.
[2][4] Payton joined the Royal Flying Corps as a cadet, and was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant (on probation) on 17 November 1917.
The next day, with squadron mates Solomon Clifford Joseph and Albert Leslie Jones, he destroyed a German observation balloon at Pont Riquen.
Payton did not score again until 11 August 1918, when he began a string of five victories over Germany's new fighter, the Fokker D.VII, including a shared win with Ivan Couper Sanderson.