The school had some notable staff and pupils; Harold Styan was its sports teacher for some years, while its alumni include jewellery historian Jack Ogden and Major General Michael Walsh.

In its heyday the school was in a prime position, facing Harrogate's Stray; its place is now taken by a block of flats.

Clifton House School was founded by James Walter Nuttall in 1898, initially with three pupils, the sons of Reverend C.N.

[1] The school possibly benefited from the closure of George Mearns Savery's Harrogate College for boys at Strathmore on Ripon Road, in the following year.

[9] From 1903, and still headed by Nuttall,[8] the school was relocated at the first of two properties built by developer Isaac Pickard in Stray Road in the same town.

[12] In 1899 the school's advertisement declared a healthy situation, a "resident foreign master", and preparation for examinations.

On 9 July 1921 Lord Baden Powell, in the presence of division commissioner of the Girl Guides, Laura Veale, presented the pack with Peter's Pole.

In 1978 the scout pack transferred to St Wilfrid's Church,[20] where in due course the 90-year anniversary of its 1909 foundation was celebrated.

We have just seen an old boy in his uniform he did look nice ... We have just been out to see such a lot of Soldiers some were Cavalry and some were Infantry the Cavalry were Yorkshire Hussars and some were Dragoons they each had a band they did sound lovely ... Mr Scott came last Monday night and in the morning he showed us a GERMAN HELMET it is such a funny thing all the helmets in the German army have had the spikes taken off Mr Scott said that it was because they wanted them to make into ammunition because they were getting short and because to that they could seen quite easily ... Lots of the boys have soldiers and we have fights in the gym I wish we had that big gun of ours it would blow the enemie's lines to pieces.

[8][27] As founding owner, headmaster and acting housemaster, James Walter Nuttall lived there,[28] from 1898 with his wife, children, and his father in law William Sutton, a retired Inland Revenue employee and Methodist preacher.

[42] In 1921 he was running a school of gymnastics in the Harrogate area,[43] including classes for men and women at the Belvedere YMCA.

[49] In 1953 Dennis Benjamin Curry,[nb 6] who was a master at the school, drew public attention by crashing his car through a concrete fence and overturning near to Harrogate gas works, at midnight on a Saturday.

For example, Jack Ogden remembered "bad food, being caned, memorising Latin and a very pretty young matron who dabbed every inch of me with calamine lotion when I had chickenpox".

[15] One former pupil of the school was Brigadier Sir Arthur Maxwell "Max" Ramsden, C.B., O.B.E., C.D., D.L.,[nb 7] who according to the London Gazette was knighted in 1954 for "political and public services to Yorkshire".

[54][55] Another former pupil of the school was Major General Michael Walsh,[56] who was a member of the scout troop there and, according to the Ripon Gazette, "went on to attain the rare distinction of gaining the King's Scout Award with Gold Cords, which at that time was the movement's highest training award for proficiency and achievement".

On his retirement from the army in 1981, he returned to North Yorkshire to become the county's Chief Scout, a position he held until 1988.

[57] Lieutenant Graham Walter Scott of the Royal Navy was an alumnus of Clifton House School.

[nb 8] He was the second son of Herbert Scott, who owned a chain of grocery stores across Yorkshire, including a branch in Harrogate.

When he completed his elementary flight training as a naval airman, he came top of his class in practical flying and theory.

[58][59] He had a younger brother, Peter Scott, director of the above grocery chain, who also attended Clifton House School.