Alfred Malcolm Causton (1845–1921) was born at Shipston on Stour, Worcestershire, the son of Rev Charles Causton MA, who was rector at St Peter's Church, Stretton-on-Fosse.
The family had connections with Lasham in Hampshire, where Rev Charles Causton was rector from 1865 to 1881. At nearby Winchester, Alfred's brother, Francis Jervoise Causton, became Master of The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty. In later life, when not at sea, Commander Causton was resident at Blackbridge House in Winchester.
From 1868 to 1874 Causton served on board HMS Himalaya, a Royal Navy troopship. Causton travels from Cape Colony (now South Africa) to the Philippines at the end of 1868, and on to New Zealand and Australia in early 1869. In late 1869 he is in Barbados in the West Indies, travelling back along the coasts of Spain and Malta, to Egypt in 1870. By 1873 he is in the Pacific South Seas, taking in Fiji and Samoa on the way to Australia and New Zealand, returning home via Cape Horn in Chile.
By 1890 it appears that he had swapped global circumnavigation for the more stationary role of Divisional Officer of Coastguards at Ballycastle (now Northern Ireland). He is credited with founding the Ballycastle Golf Club, an indication perhaps of a more genteel lifestyle in older age.
