Robert William Cumberbatch (1821–1876) was a British diplomat who held the post of Consul in the Russian and Ottoman Empires.
[4] He was appointed Consul at Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov (now Ukraine, but then part of the Russian Empire) on 12 January 1858.
[5][6][7] On 25 April 1864 he was appointed Consul at Smyrna[8] (now İzmir, Turkey), remaining in his post until his death.
[9] Being in the diplomatic service in Smyrna, Cumberbatch enthusiastically struggled with slave trade.
[4] Despite the disapproval of his superiors in the foreign service, he repeatedly attempted to draw attention to the slave trade in the Mediterranean in order to create pressure to ban it.