caption death_date imagesize nationality office birth_date term_start image article_title term_end name
photograph of cave taken in 1930 1931 200px british vice-consul british consul-general to zanzibar british consul-general to algeria of british east africa british consul to zanzibar 14 november 1865 20 1 april 1909 march 1891 1 june 1895 9 july 1903 basilcave.jpg basil cave
 1 unknown june 1895 9 july 1903 1 april 1909 basil shillito cave
basil cave

sir basil shillito cave cb , order of st michael and st george -lrb- 1865 -- 1931 -rrb- 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 .
he left the country in 1909 , being posted to algeria where he was said to have worked hard to `` strengthen the friendship between the french and the british peoples '' .
cave was made a knight commander of the order of st michael and st george in 1925 and was also a fellow of the royal geographical society .
