Captain Robert Theophilus Dalton Sayle RASC was an author, Old Boy of the School, Liveryman of the Company and author. After MERCHANT TAYLORS’ he returned to Hong Kong and worked for the Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Company. Returning to England he became a legal publisher and worked for Sweet & Maxwell, the Law Publishers and Booksellers based at 3 Chancery Lane, London. He became the Company Secretary.
He wrote extensively, including about the School and the Company including “the Annals of Merchant Taylors’ school library” (Bibliographical Society, 1935) and A Brief History of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John Baptist in the City of London (Eastern Press: London & Reading, 1945).
He was born in Hong Kong in 1883, the son of Boardman Bromhead Dalton Sayle and Charlotte Mary Sayle, one of two boys, his brother being Cdr Arthur Reginald Willis Sayle RNR. He married Winifred Gertrude Mary Sayle (Nee Laurie) and they had a daughter, Mary Isabel Grigson. The family home was Langtons, Ottershaw.
His masonry too was rooted in Hong Kong, with both his mother Lodge and Mother Chapter being there. He was exalted in the Cathy Chapter No 1165.
He served with the RASC during the war, rising to the rank of captain.
He was a member of the Junior Carlton.
He died in 1946, aged 63 in Surrey.