Claud Henry Pace was born in Chelsea, London, on 2nd June 1893. When the census was taken in 1901, he was visiting his grandparents at the Station Hotel in Melton. In 1911, he was living in London and working as a footman for Sir William Ballie-Hamilton (a Scottish civil servant who, in his youth, was a member of the Scottish team in the first football match against England in 1870).

Claud enlisted into the Royal Field Artillery shortly after the start of the war and was posted to France on the 6th September 1915. He remained with the regiment for the duration of the war.

On 31st December 1917, while on leave to England, Claud married Emily Crowley in St George's Church, Hanover Square, London, and they went on to have two daughters.

In 1939, Claud and his wife Emily were living in Beaufort Gardens, Kensington, where Claud was working as a housekeeper – he died in 1972.

For his war service, Claud received the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals.