Henry English Fulford (27 October 1859 – 15 May 1929), known as H. E. Fulford, was a British diplomat, who spent most of his career in China.
Life and career
H.E. Fulford was born in
Chepstow
Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the western ...
,
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
Melbourne Grammar School
(Pray and Work)
, established = 1849 (on present site since 1858 - the celebrated date of foundation)
, type = Independent, co-educational primary, single-sex boys secondary, day and boarding
, denominatio ...
, Henry Fulford went to England, to acquire some business experience in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
student interpreter Student interpreter was, historically, an entry-level position in the British and American diplomatic and consular service, principally in China, Japan, Siam and, in the case of the United States, Turkey. It is no longer used as a title. A number o ...
at the British Consulate in
Newchwang
Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...
(today's
Yingkou
Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...
), he joined two British officers on leave from India –
H. E. M. James
Sir Henry Evan Murchison James (20 January 1846 – 20 August 1923) was a British civil servant in the Indian Civil Service from 1865 to 1900.
He was the Commissioner in Sind from 1891 to 1900.
Official duties
He formally opened Dayaram Jeth ...
of the
Indian Civil Service
The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.
Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...
and
Francis Younghusband
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, (31 May 1863 – 31 July 1942) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British e ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
– and went with them on a tour of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
. As he was the only person of the three Brits who had a China background, he provided the British party with a language and cultural expertise.
Fulford served for a number of years in the British consulate in Newchwang. He became the consul there in 1899, and served in that position during the Boxer Uprising and the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, informing the British governments on the events as they developed.
He was appointed CMG in the
1900 Birthday Honours
The Queen's Birthday Honours 1900 were announced on 23 May 1900 in celebration of the birthday of Queen Victoria. The list included appointments to various orders and honours of the United Kingdom and British India.
The list was published in ''T ...
. In 1906, he was appointed the British Consul General in Mukden (now,
Shenyang
Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...
).The London Gazette, 1906-09-11 /ref>
Later, he held a number of other consular posts throughout China. He served as a Consul General in
Hankou
Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...
(1911), acting Consul General in Shanghai (1913), and Consul General in
Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
(1912–1917).
In 1917, Fulford retired and returned to Australia. On 15 May 1929, his daughter found him shot dead, apparently in a suicide, in the bedroom of his Melbourne residence.