Basil Cave

Who was Basil Cave?

Sir Basil Shillito Cave CB, KCMG was a British diplomat. He was the son of Thomas Cave, a Liberal Member of Parliament, and one of his brothers was George Cave who would become a Conservative Home Secretary and a Viscount. Basil Cave worked for the Foreign Office as a civil servant and was appointed Vice-Consul of British East Africa in 1891. In 1893 he was placed in command of a number of soldiers during civil disorder on Zanzibar and in 1895 was appointed Consul to the country. The Consul-General, AH Hardinge being away, Cave was responsible for starting the Anglo-Zanzibar War in 1896. He issued an ultimatum to Khalid bin Barghash who had seized the throne on the death of Sultan Hamad. The resulting 38-minute war, the shortest in history, ended with victory for Britain and the installation of their chosen Sultan, Hamoud bin Mohammed.

Cave was rewarded with appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1897 and accompanied Zanzibari Prince Ali bin Hamud to the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902. He received promotion to Consul-General in 1903 and issued orders that resulted in the quelling of a mutiny in the Sultan's army in 1907.