Émile Mauchamp or Pierre Benoit Émile Mauchamp (3 March 1870, in

Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the largest city in the department; h ...

Saône-et-Loire Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part. Saône-et-Loire is Bo ...

– 19 March 1907, in

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

, Morocco) was a French doctor assassinated by a mob in

, near the pharmacy where he practiced. He was characterized as a "martyr to civilization" in the French press; his death, an "unprovoked and indefensible attack from the ''barbarous natives'' of Morocco." His death was taken as a pretext by Hubert Lyautey and his forces in taking

Oujda Oujda ( ar, وجدة; ber, ⵡⵓⵊⴷⴰ, Wujda) is a major Moroccan city in its northeast near the border with Algeria. Oujda is the capital city of the Oriental region of northeastern Morocco and has a population of about 558,000 people. It ...

, marking the beginning of the French conquest of Morocco.

Biography

Émile Mauchamp was the son of a politician who was the counselor general of

. After his studies in collège, he left for Paris to study medicine. He was named a marine medical officer and practiced in a number of countries: Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Greece, Russia, and Turkey.

Morocco

After a journey to Jerusalem, he was chosen by decree of the minister of foreign affairs to go to Morocco and run a pharmacy created in

in 1905.

Assassination

He was assassinated near the pharmacy on March 19, 1907. He was accused of having "pernicious Christian objectives."

Funeral

Émile Mauchamp was given a national funeral and was awareded the medal of the Legion of Honour posthumously. His funeral on April 11, 1907, was attended by a massive crowd including several political figures such as the French Minister of Foreign Affairs

Stephen Pichon Stephen Jean-Marie Pichon (10 August 1857 – 18 September 1933, Vers-en-Montagne) was a French journalist, diplomat and politician of the Third Republic. The Avenue Stéphen-Pichon in Paris is named after him. Life Stephen Jean-Marie Pichon ...

. Mauchamp's casket arrived at the station of

at 9 am, draped in the French flag. His coffin was displayed on a catafalque placed in front of the town hall. No fewer than 7 speeches were made. The funeral procession then headed to the Cemetery of the East; shopkeepers lowered their curtains. He was interred in the intimacy of his family, but the citizens had an opportunity to pay their last respects.

Monuments

A bronze sculpture by Pierre Curillon placed in Chabas Square in the memory of Dr. Émile Mauchamp was inaugurated on August 21, 1910. The statue features a Moroccan woman extending an arm toward the doctor while holding her son in the other arm. German soldiers stole the statue in World War II. A road in

leading toward the old prison still bears his name.

Bibliography

* . * * Robert Tatheraux, ''Émile Mauchamp : la vie généreuse et la fin tragique d'un médecin chalonnais'', revue « Images de Saône-et-Loire » n° 56 (Noël 1983), pp. 17–19.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauchamp, Emile French murder victims 20th-century French physicians People murdered in Morocco 1870 births 1907 deaths 19th-century French physicians 20th-century Moroccan physicians