Captain V. Barkly Molteno, Royal Navy, 1916

Married: Ethel Manwaring Robertson (in 1915)

Children:

1. Viola Mary Barkly Molteno;

2. Malcolm Christian Swanston (adopted)

Royal Navy officer; Captain of HMS Warrior in the Battle of Jutland, 1916. 

Brief biography
One of John Charles Molteno’s younger sons. He was sent off from the Cape to England in 1885 at the age of 13 to train as a Royal Navy officer.  He had a distinguished career in the Navy, fought  in 1916 in the Battle of Jutland (the only largescale engagement during World War 1 between the German Imperial fleet and the Royal Navy), and retired as a Vice-Admiral in 1922. He and his wife, Ethel Robertson, had one daughter, Viola Molteno; Barkly also adopted Ethel’s son, Malcolm.

Further information

• Barkly Molteno, as described in Francis Hirst’s biography of Percy Molteno, p. 7)
• Uncle Barkly Molteno — Cynthia  Payne (nee Stanford)’s recollections from the mid 1940s