A theological student at Birkbeck when the First World War was declared, Clements enlisted early in the University and Public Schools Brigade, which later merged into the Royal Fusiliers. Injured while on guard duty at Arras by a stray wire, he wrote poetry during his recuperation. He later published his poems in Salisbury Plain and Other Poems. His style was along more heroic and romantic lines than the more cynical war poets that are lauded today, such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon – though at the time it was more fashionable to revere great sacrifice on behalf of the “Motherland.” Having been recognised with the Military Cross for gallantry in 1918, Clements died five months later during the Battle of Amiens.