May 1907 – Charles Lépissier
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Charles Lépissier (李畢廲 – Lǐ bì-lí) was born on 23 May 1882 in Canton (Guǎngzhōu – 广州) where his father worked for the Chinese Imperial Customs (大清皇家海關總稅務司 – Dà Qīng huángjiā hǎiguān). He was baptised on 4 January 1884 in Shànghǎi. At the end of 1888, he was placed in boarding school in France at the age of six.
Charles graduated with a degree in Chinese from the School of Oriental Languages in June 1906, with a “Good” distinction, and obtained the second part of his baccalaureate in Law.
On 20 August 1906, a decree nominated Charles as “student-interpreter of the Chinese language” and a decree of 15 December of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nominated him to the Peking legation (Běijīng – 北京).
Charles Lépissier was posted to Shànghǎi (上海) from 21 February 1907 to 6 December 1908, then spent two months in Beijing until 14 February 1909, before returning to Shànghǎi for three months until 16 May 1909. He was then posted to Guǎngzhōu until the beginning of September 1910, during which time he took an interim post in Swatow (Shàntóu – 汕头) in July-August 1910.
From September 1910 to 24 March 1911, he was in Shànghǎi again before returning to France for his first 9 month leave until January 1912.
On his return to China on 29 February 1912, he went back to Shànghǎi where he stayed for 14 months until 23 June 1913, with a two-month interlude in Méngzì (蒙自) in the Yúnnán (云南) from 21 May to the end of July 1912.
From 24 June 1913 to 31 May 1914, Charles Lépissier was at the Consulate in Lóngzhōu (龙州) in the Guǎngxī (广西), then from 1 April 1914 to 5 June 1914, he was on a mission in Langson in the Tonkin.
From 8 June 1914 to January 1919, he was in Yúnnánfu (Kūnmíng – 昆明市) in the Yúnnán for a stay of four and a half years..
During this post, he carried out a military intelligence mission for four months (11 October 1915 to 23 January 1916) in Sīmáo (思茅) in the Yúnnán, amidst “an inhospitable population” in order to gather information about the situation at the border with Laos and prepare the arrival of Colonel Friquegnon’s column. He suffered a slight injury to his thigh at the hands of bandits during this mission. Charles would receive the honour of the Colonial Medal of High-Laos for this “mission of trust”.
He ended his second trip to China with a three-month stint in Běijīng from January 1919 to 4 April 1919 where, amongst other things, he replaced a Professor of French at the University of Běijīng.
On 15 May 1915, he arrived in Paris for a period of leave in France during which he married Madeleine Gerber on 14 February 1920.
The young couple left for China in April 1920. Charles was appointed as Consul in Harbin (Hā'ĕrbīn – 哈尔滨) in Manchuria.
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The following tab contains further information on Charles Lépissier’s life during his youth and first posts in China: 'Book on Charles Lépissier : Youth and first posts' with 491 illustrations (Only available to members of the Association Émile-Jean Lépissier).
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Redirections :
- Go to 'Legal Notices & GDPR' (Publicly available)
- Go to 'Charles Lépissier in Harbin, Mandchuria (1921-1924)' (Publicly available)
- Go to 'Documents relating to Charles Lépissier' (Only available to members of the Association Émile-Jean Lépissier)