Sir Charles Alfred Payton MVO (12 November 1843 – 11 March 1926) was a British adventurer, fisherman, diplomat and writer.
Charles Payton was born in York, the son of a Dissenting minister, and educated at Scarborough and at New College, London, which was not yet part of the University of London, but in 1860 he passed the university's matriculation with honours.
Afterwards he became by turn a manufacturer of explosives, the owner of a Cornish china clay mine, a diamond digger at Kimberley, South Africa, a salesman on the Continent for a firm of coal merchants, a clerk at Toulouse, and a merchant at Mogador in western Morocco.
[4] He remained there for the rest of his career; in 1906 he was appointed MVO,[5] in 1902 his territory was expanded to include the departments of Aisne and Ardennes,[6] and in 1911 he was promoted to Consul-General.
Charles Payton was angling correspondent of The Field from 1867 to 1914, under the pen-name of "Sarcelle".