 His last posting was, for him, a welcome return to the Malaya he loved, as Governor of the Straits Settlements and British High Commissioner in Malaya, where he served from 1927 until 1929, after which Lady Clifford's ill-health forced his retirement.Alongside his other books he wrote "Farther India", which chronicles European explorations and discoveries in Southeast Asia.Several schools in Malaysia are named Clifford School in his honour, such as;

Clifford is briefly referred to in V. S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men.