Person:Robert Cole (18)

Robert Henry Cole was the son of Henry Brougham Cole; he was educated at St Augustus College, Canterbury, Kent and later graduated bachelor of divinity. He took his degree of doctor of civil law at Trinity College, Toronto, Canada. He married Henrietta Margaret Hamilton in Quebec, Canada on 26 February 1889.

In 1893 he went to Tasmania where he was ordained a deacon. The following year he became a priest of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Launceston. He returned to England in 1896 and became curate at All Saints, Middlesbrough, Yorkshire. After a year in England he went abroad again, this time to Quebec, Canada where he was appointed vicar of St Matthews. Robert Henry Cole was then sent to Bermuda, becoming canon of the cathedral of Bermuda in 1898. After leaving Bermuda and travelling he went to New Zealand and was ordained as Archdeacon of Taranaki in 1902; he was also superintendant of the Diocesan home mission. Following 10 years in Taranaki, ill health forced him to retire. More travelling followed and eventually he returned to New Zealand for a few years before his death in Auckland in 1934. He is buried (at his request) in Te Henui cemetery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.