Clement Palmer was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England on 2 July 1857 and was articled to Jonathan Tebbs Bottle (1832-1914) and George Baines (1852-1934) of Bottle & Baines in Accrington, Lancashire from 1873 to 1877. He then worked as an assistant to Edward Boardman (1833-1910) in Norwich, Norfolk from 1877 to 1880.
After practising briefly as an architect in London, in 1882 Palmer emigrated to Hong Kong. where initially he worked as an assistant to Wilberforce Wilson and Sotheby Godfrey Bird of Wilson Bird, before being taken into partnership in 1884 following Wilson's retirement. In 1891, with Arthur Turner (1858-?), a structural engineer, he established the architectural firm Palmer & Turner in Hong Kong.
In the 1920s and 1930s the firm designed several buildings in Shanghai including the Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Building (1921-23); the Sassoon House (1926-28); and the Sassoon Villa (1930).
Palmer was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1882 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1901.
Palmer retired in 1907 and may have returned to England. His name no longer appears in the Kalendar of The Royal Institute of British Architects after this date. He died in Flushing, Cornwall on 10 July 1952
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 183, 18 July 1952 p. 86