Henry Robert Clifton (baptised 20 May 1832 – 15 July 1872) was an English music hall singer, songwriter and entertainer.

A prolific composer in the popular genre, his most successful song was "Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green".

[7] Lithographs of several of his other songs are also held in the British Library online archive, including "The Dark Girl Dress'd in Blue" (which has a colour portrait of Clifton on the front page),[8] "Isabella, The Barber's Daughter"[9] and "The Railway Bell(e)".

[10] Clifton undertook a nationwide tour between 1865 and 1867, with his own Cosmopolitan Concert Company, and for some years lived in Glasgow.

[2] One of his obituaries stated: "The popularity which his songs attained is best denoted by the fact that even now they are whistled by every street-boy, played by every barrel organ and sung in every town and hamlet in the United Kingdom.