Émile Mauchamp

Émile Mauchamp or Pierre Benoit Émile Mauchamp (3 March 1870 Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône-et-Loire – 19 March 1907 Marrakesh, Morocco) was a French doctor assassinated by a mob in Marrakesh, 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."[1] His death was taken as a pretext by Hubert Lyautey and his forces in taking Oujda, marking the beginning of the French conquest of Morocco.[1]

Émile Mauchamp
Born
Pierre Benoit Émile Mauchamp

(1870-03-03)3 March 1870
Died19 March 1907(1907-03-19) (aged 37)
NationalityFrench
Caption reads: A Frenchman assassinated in Morocco: Doctor Mauchamp, doctor of the Marrakesh dispensary, stoned to death by the natives.
Caption reads: In Morocco: the Assassination of Doctor Mauchamp in Marrakesh
The assassination of Dr. Mauchamp as depicted in conservative French newspapers Le Petit Journal (left) and Le Petit Parisien (right) in 1907.

Biography

Émile Mauchamp was the son of a politician who was the counselor general of Chalon-sur-Saône. 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 Marrakesh 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. Mauchamp's casket arrived at the station of Chalon-sur-Saône 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 Chalon-sur-Saône leading toward the old prison still bears his name.

Bibliography
  • "Dr. Pierre Benoit Emile Mauchamp". British Medical Journal. 1 (2413): 785. 1907. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.2413.785-b. PMC 2357128..
  • Katz, Jonathan Glustrom (2006). Murder in Marrakech: Émile Mauchamp and the French Colonial Adventure. Bloomington et Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. p. 358. ISBN 978-0-253-34815-9.
  • 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
  1. Miller, Susan Gilson. (2013). A history of modern Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 9781139624695. OCLC 855022840.
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