Robert Laffan

Sir Robert Michael Laffan (21 September 1821 – 22 March 1882) was an Irish officer of the Royal Engineers, politician, and governor of Bermuda.

Early life The third son of John Laffan, of Skehanagh, counties Clare and Limerick, he was born on 21 September 1821. Educated at the college of Pont Levoy, near Blois, France, he went to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in September 1835, and on 5 May 1837 was gazetted a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.

Career After serving for two years at Chatham and Woolwich, and becoming first lieutenant on 1 April 1839, Laffan was sent to South Africa, where he was employed in frontier service. He was one of the officers summoned by the governor, Sir George Napier, to a council of war in order to concert measures for the relief of Captain Thomas Charlton Smith and the garrison of Port Natal, then beleaguered by a force of Boers under Andries Pretorius. Laffan took charge of the engineering arrangements of the expedition, under Abraham Josias Cloete, which relieved the British garrison.

From the Cape, Laffan was sent to Mauritius, where he was promoted captain on 1 May 1846. On his return home in 1847 he was appointed commanding Royal Engineer at Belfast. At the close of the year was nominated an inspector of railways under the Board of Trade, a post he held until the autumn of 1852, when he was sent to Paris and Antwerp to report on the defences for the information of Sir John Fox Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications. He was promoted regimental colonel on 9 February 1870. In January 1872 he was sent to Gibraltar as commanding Royal Engineer, and remained there for five years. Another son, Henry David Laffan (1858–1931) was a colonel in the Royal Engineers, who took part in the geodetic survey of the Cape Colony and Natal in 1883 to 1888.

Death Laffan died on Bermuda, at Mount Langton, 22 March 1882. His body lay in state for two days, and was buried with military honours in Pembroke churchyard, Bermuda.