Educated in England, he worked as an insurance agent in Constantinople for 18 years before moving to Canada in 1892, settling in the city of Victoria.

After a short period in Toronto, he moved to England where in 1900 he published two more books, an account of the Second Boer War and a satirical poem.

He held an appointment in Constantinople for 18 years,[2] rising to general manager of the New York Life Insurance Company.

[5][6] A column on newspaper history wrote that "his caustic style and absolute fearlessness in the puncturing of pretentious bubbles soon won for the new publication a wide circulation.

[2] In 1894, writing under the pseudonym Kim Bilir, Scaife published the first work of fiction in British Columbia, Three Letters of Credit and Other Stories.

[14] The settings were cosmopolitan, including the inferred location of Constantinople,[15] and also Vienna, the shores of the Black Sea, Winnipeg, and Greece.

[16] The Overland Monthly, a California magazine, wrote that "the stories are told with much humor, some keen character drawing, and good local color.

"[16] Another favourable review, by the Toronto magazine The Week, singled out the comic situations of the bank clerk in the lead story.

[12] Not knowing the identity of the author, The Week stated that they wished they knew, "for a stronger story than "As it Was in the Fifties" we have rarely read".

[23] Also in 1900, Scaife put out his final book, a satirical poem entitled The Soliloquy of a Shadow-Shape on a Holiday from Hades.