He was educated at Warialda Convent, and later at St Patrick's Marist Brothers, Sydney.
He was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace in 1946, in which year he also became a member of the Liberal Party's State Council.
[1] He was the Liberal candidate for the safe Labor seat of Reid in the 1949 and 1951 federal elections.
In 1956, Clough was preselected as the Liberal candidate for the state seat of Parramatta, held by Labor MP Kevin Morgan.
He was instead elected to Baulkham Hills Council, but re-entered state politics in 1965 following the retirement of Eastwood Liberal MP Eric Hearnshaw, and was Minister for Youth, Ethnic and Community Affairs for four months in 1976.