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Name: ZAPHIRO, Photius Philip Constantine CMG
Birth Date: 2 Jan 1877 Constantinople
Death Date: 29 Aug 1933 Addis Ababa
First Date: 1904
Profession: British consul
Area: Moyale
Married: In London 14 Oct 1922 Ida Maria Martha Bonfadini b. 17 Nov 1896 London, d. 1970 Wandsworth, London
Children: Margaret Elizabeth Ida (Randall/Pattison) (18 Apr 1923 Addis Ababa-5 Apr 2005 New Zealand); Jocelyn Helen (Hoy) (1924 Addis Ababa-31 Dec 2017 London); Denis Ronald Photius (6 Jan 1926 Hounslow-2004)
Book Reference: Lillibullero, White Man, Debrett, Hut, Curtis, Thurston, Chandler, Who's Who
School: Cairo
General Information:
White Man - Early in 1909 an assistant DC (Capt. Barrett) with an escort of KAR, went up to Moyale from Jubaland to relieve the Greek Frontier Agent, Mr Zaphiro, who was recalled to Addis Ababa.
Debrett - was British S. Abyssinian Frontier Inspector 1904-10, since when he has been British Vice-Consul at Addis Ababa (also First Interpreter and Abyssinian Sec. 1910-15, and Oriental Sec. since 1921)
Curtis - p. 148 - 'A Trading Safari to Marsabit in 1907' - Philip Zaphiro CMG, is the Greek who was British Frontier Agent at Moyale from 1905 to 1909 and later Secretary to the British Legation in Addis Ababa. Being a malaria sufferer, he shifted the Kenya Ethiopia border several kilometres to the north so as to have in Kenya a place for his headquarters, Moyale, which was fairly free from mosquitoes.
Thurston - CO 533, 408/16 - 1930-32 - P. Zaphiro: request for gratuity refused
Lillibullero - Greek Frontier Agent. ......... half Turk and half Greek, a man of hand and mind, in later days famous as the Oriental Secretary to the British Minister at Addis Ababa.
Hut - Brit. Consul Moyale, Taxidermist
Judy Aldrick, Northrup, 2012: He was employed by Sir John Harrington as a taxidermist and interpreter, He had lived in Harar, Ethiopia, where he worked as a medical dispenser for some years and spoke Arabic, Amharic and Oromo (also known as Galla). He was a keen ornithologist and in 1907 was appt. British Southern Abyssinia Frontier Inspector. He became First Interpreter at the Legation under the Minister Wilfrid Thesiger and in 1921 was appt. Oriental Secretary and was given a royal commission.
Naturalised British 24 Jan 1913