Augustus Raymond Margary

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Augustus Raymond Margary

Augustus Raymond Margary (* 26. May 1846 in Belgaum, today Bombay , East India , † 21st February 1875 in Manwein or "Manwyne Chinese  满云 , Pinyin Mǎnyún " in Yunnan , Chinese Empire ) was a British traveler and diplomat .

Youth and school time

He was the third son of Major General Henry Joshua Margary and was tutored by his mother. At the age of 9 he went to school in France and then lived with his grandparents in England. His uncle was the principal of Swafield, Norfolk, and also served at North Walsham Grammar School. With his three brothers he was sent to Brighton College , where he stayed for seven years. While in school there, he developed brain fever as a result of a blow to the head received while the boys from college were fighting the boys in town. He felt the effects until the end of his life. After his parents returned from India, he attended lectures at the University of London College and pursued an academic career.

Then he received a message from his uncle Austen Henry Layard , who was ambassador in Madrid, that he had nominated him for the diplomatic service in China. Now he studied Chinese for seven hours every day. He took part in a selection test before the civil service commissioners, which he passed on the third attempt. He then received a certificate and was appointed student translator at the Chinese Consulate on February 2, 1867. The following month, Margary traveled to China and was promoted to Third Class Assistant on Nov. 18, 1869.

Life

Map showing Margary's route
Map with the routes of the expeditions of 1868 and 1875

Margary was at the British legation in Beijing until 1870 when he was transferred to the island of Formosa (now Taiwan). Here he was responsible for the consulate service for the next 12 months. He lived mainly in Tamsuy and Kelung , but also made trips to other parts of the island. It studied the flora and geology of the island. During a typhoon in Kelung, he and his friend, Mr. Dodd, a British merchant, rescued forty-two castaways on August 9, 1971. For this act both received the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society on July 16, 1872, as well as the Albert Medal (life saving) 1st class from Queen Victoria on October 28, 1872.

During his career in China, he has been offered jobs on two occasions at a salary at least twice what the government received. Both times he refused.

In 1872 he visited England and took part in a discussion on Formosa hosted by the Royal Geographical Society . Magary became a member of this society. Via North America and Japan he returned to China, where he arrived in Shanghai in September 1873.

He was promoted to second class assistant on December 7, 1872 and was a translator in Shanghai from October 16. to Nov. 12, 1873. He also took part in the Chefoo negotiations from Nov. 24, 1873 to April 9, 1874 as an interpreter .

In 1874 he was commissioned to accompany an expedition under Colonel Horace Browne , which was to advance from Burma to Yunnan , as an interpreter. From Shanghai he made his way to Burma overland, which no European had ever done before, mostly by boat up the rivers and passing through the provinces of Hunan , Guizhou and Yunnan. On January 15, 1875, he met the Brownesche expedition in Bhamo on the Irrawaddy .

He went ahead to find out the way, but was "treacherously murdered" (Meyers Konversationslexikon, 4th A.) or "killed during a resistance on the part of the locals" in Manwein on the Chinese border in Yunnan on February 21, 1875 "( China Radio International ), which resulted in serious differences between England and China.

They culminated in the Treaty of Yantai of 1876 (the Chefoo Convention ), which gave Great Britain the right to send people to "explore" trade routes to Yunnan, or from China via Tibet to India, or vice versa. This opened the way to Yunnan and Tibet for the British . They also reached the opening of the ports of Ich'ang, Wuhu, Wenchou, and Pakhoi ( Peihai ) to British trade.

His diary appeared in 1875 under the title: "Notes of a journey from Hankow to Ta-li-fu" in Shanghai.

Works

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography Wade by Sir Robert Kennaway Douglas ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition), Vol. 28, pp. 277-278 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lib.cam.ac.uk
  2. ↑ Bloomsbury Auctions  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bloomsburyauctions.com  
  3. ^ Margary, Augustus Raymond . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 232.
  4. ↑ a b http://german.cri.cn/other/chinageschichte/95.htm
  5. ^ Chefoo Convention
  6. ^ Notes of a journey from Hankow to Ta-li Fu

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Margary, Augustus Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES v = 满 云 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British traveler and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Belgaum
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1875
Place of death Manwein , Yunnan