MB ChB Edin 1913; DPM Lond 1923.
After studying medicine in Edinburgh, Gifford was clinical assistant at Maudsley Hospital and then senior assistant medical officer at Rainhill Mental Hospital. He later held the position of deputy medical superintendent at the county mental hospitals at Derby and Winwick. He was retired from Winwick due to ill health, but was later appointed medical officer for the Lancashire County Mental Hospital in Prestwich. Gifford was a lecturer in mental diseases at the University of Manchester and was a member of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. Gifford was later consultant psychiatrist to the Ministry of Pensions. One of his sons, John Hamilton Gifford, studied medicine at Manchester and held a junior position at Hope Hospital Salford, but spent most of his career in Liverpool, becoming consultant chest physician to Aintree Hospital. For his younger son, Leonard Aitchison Gifford, see below.