Harold Ernest Stanley Clayton was born on 14 Jul 1896 in Bethnal Green, London to William Clayton and Martha Margaret Bennett. His father was a manager at a factory and had the means to be able to send him to Hackney art school, near where they lived. After graduating with distinction, he went to Harrow Art School and then on to Hornsey College to study graphic design and commercial art. From there, he continued his education at St Martin's School of Art where he studied under the Art Master Norman Jones, a move which had a great effect on him and led to his exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

Clayton lived with his family at 189 Amhurst Road, Hackney until the late 1920’s when he moved to 19 Greenhill Crescent, Harrow on the Hill. Although he spent most of his life in London, he is known to have lived in Cyprus for a time from 1965 before moving back to England around 1974. He settled in Devon where he had spent time before, living at 2 Trelane, Atherington Umberleigh . He died at Atherington on 1 March 1979.

It is primarily through his pictures of still life flowers that he has become famous although interestingly the output of this subject matter was relatively small. With approximately one painting produced every month this accounts for the quality and rarity of his still life paintings.