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Name: CAYLEY, Robert Edward Cornelius (Lieut.)
Photo Source: Kevin Patience
Birth Date: 22.9.1870 Brompton, Yorkshire
Death Date: 14.12.1896 Mombasa, malaria
Profession: Lieut. in Royal Navy on H.M.S. Blonde
General Information:
Buried at Kisauni. Plaque at Kisauni church
FindaGrave Robert Edward Cornelius Cayley BIRTH Dec 1870 Brompton on Swale, Richmondshire District, North Yorkshire, England DEATH 14 Dec 1896 (aged 25–26) Mombasa, Kenya BURIAL Kisauni Cemetery Mombasa
Kevin Patience: Robert Edward Cornelius Cayley was born on 22 September 1870, the son of Digby Cayley of Norton Grove, Malton, Lincolnshire, one of 14 children. At the age of 13, he joined the Royal Navy at the Britannia Naval College as a cadet on 15 January 1884. Two years later on 15 May 1886, he became a Midshipman and four years later was promoted to Sub Lt. He joined the gunboat H.M.S. Pigeon in January 1892 and in August was promoted to Lieutenant. Three years later he joined the cruiser H.M.S. Blonde as navigating officer on the west African coast. The ship later joined the R.N. East Indies squadron based at Simonstown in South Africa. In August 1895 the ship was based in Mombasa for the attack on the fort at Mwele in the Shimba Hills. The ship’s logbook shows that Cayley had swung the compass in December 1895 to plot the deviation caused by the ship’s magnetism. His neatly written daily entries in the log end on the 3 December 1896 and six days later he was landed and admitted to hospital in Mombasa. On the 15th the ship’s log reads, ‘Landed funeral party to inter the remains of Lt. Cayley who died of fever at Mombasa hospital at 8.42 on 14 December.’ He died of malaria possibly contracted in West Africa and had been an exemplary competent officer who had acted as pilot for the ship on a number of occasions. A voucher in the logbook dated 12 December 1896 records his last duty payment as pilot but whether his family received the money will never be known.