Sir Robert Michael Laffan KCMG FRSA (21 September 1821 – 22 March 1882) was an Irish officer of the Royal Engineers, politician, and governor of Bermuda.
He was one of the officers summoned by the governor, Sir George Napier, to a council of war in order to concert measures for the relief of Captain Thomas Charlton Smith and the garrison of Port Natal, then beleaguered by a force of Boers under Andries Pretorius.
At the close of the year was nominated an inspector of railways under the Board of Trade, a post he held until the autumn of 1852, when he was sent to Paris and Antwerp to report on the defences for the information of Sir John Fox Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications.
In 1854 he was appointed commanding royal engineer in the London district, and in 1855 he was sent by the Duke of Newcastle, then secretary of state for war, with William Thomas Knollys and Sir George Maclean, to report on the organisation of the French ministère de la guerre.
On his return from sick leave he was stationed at Portsmouth for a short time, and towards the end of 1860 he was sent to Malta as commanding Royal Engineer.
[1] In 1865 Laffan was sent to Ceylon as a member of a commission to investigate and report on the military expenditure of the colony and the strength of the force to be maintained there in time of peace.
[5] Another son, Henry David Laffan (1858–1931) was a colonel in the Royal Engineers, who took part in the geodetic survey of the Cape Colony and Natal in 1883 to 1888.