▶Date of birth: 11 April 1848         Place of birth: Sheffield

▶Father: Francis Collins Cavalier      Mother: Catharine Arnold

▶Spouse(s):  Mary Grey    Date(s) of marriage:  1876     Place(s) of marriage: Ceylon (probably)

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican), Missionary

▶Lifestory: Anthony Ramsden Cavalier trained as a clergyman, intending to work in the colonies, and spent much of his life with his wife and family in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and in southern India. He was born in 1848 in Sheffield, the eldest son of hosier and draper Francis Collins Cavalier, and his wife Catharine (née Arnold). His father left the family home to travel to Australia, and by 1861 Cavalier lived with his mother and her parents at St Mary’s, on the Scilly Isles.

By 1871 he was a Theological Student living at Clarence House in Reading, which was associated with the Church Missionary Society (CMS); he attended the CMS Missionary College in Islington and in 1872 visited New York as a Student, sailing on the Calabria. Cavalier became a Deacon (Canterbury) in 1874 “with a special view to his officiating in the colonies”, and a Priest in 1876.

He married Mary Grey in 1876, probably in Ceylon, and they had eight children, of which six boys survived childhood. From 1874 and 1880 he worked for the CMS as a Missionary in Ceylon, where the CMS policy and the determination of its rights, as maintained by Cavalier and others, upset the Bishop of Colombo, latterly as Superintendent of the Tamil Cooly Mission

Cavilier then served as Secretary of the Zenana Missionary Society 1881-3, living back in Reading with his wife and three sons and lecturing widely on his experiences in Ceylon. Then, in 1883, he travelled to South India to work as a CMS Missionary in Tinnevelly, where he remained until 1885. Returning to England he was elected a Fellow of the Huguenot Society of London, and was licensed to preach in the diocese of Ripon in 1886, and in 1887 to officiate in the diocese of Liverpool.

He was appointed Vicar of St Paul’s, Cheltenham 1888-9; between 1889 and 1890 he lived at 20 Clarence Square in Pittville. While in Cheltenham he again spoke extensively of his mission work, and it can have been little surprise that in 1890 he took up the post of Clerical Secretary of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission from 1890, in 1891 living with his wife and six sons at 33 Edith Road, Fulham; both he and his wife lectured frequently on their mission work, especially amongst the women of India and Ceylon.

In 1898 he revisited India, to explore the current state of the mission work, and in 1899 caused some concern by his condemnation of Ritualists in the Anglican Church, particularly because he claimed that the Church had indoctrinated his youngest son. Later that year the visit he and his wife were making to New Zealand on behalf of the CMS was cut short when one of the Secretaries of the Zenana mission died, and Cavalier was obliged to return to England.

In 1901 the family lived at 60 Sheen Park, Richmond, Surrey, where he described himself as a Clergyman and as a Secretary, as he did in 1911 when he lived with his wife at Lindula, Northwood, in Middlesex, visiting Canada for an extended stay with his wife from late 1913 into 1914. In  1915 Cavalier was appointed Vicar of Mancetter near Atherstone, Warwickshire, where he died at the Rectory in 1922, at the age of seventy-two; his estate at death was valued at over £3,746.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Liverpool      Moved from Pittville to: Fulham

▶Date of death:   30 October 1922     Place of death: Mancetter near Atherstone, Warwickshire

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes: London Evening Standard 21 September 1874       ID: 5574

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden