Henry English Fulford

Henry English Fulford,^[1] also known as Harry English Fulford,^[2] or simply H.E. Fulford (1859—1929) was a British diplomat, who spent most of his career in China.^[1]

H.E. Fulford was born in Chepstow, Monmouthshire.^[3] His father, Rev. John Fulford, had been an Anglican priest in Australia (Adelaide and Melbourne).^[3][4] Soon after the boy's birth, the Fulford family returned to Australia,^[5] where Rev. Fulford (later, Rev. Canon Fulford) resumed his ecclesiastical career.^[4]

After graduating from the Melbourne Grammar School, Henry Fulford went to England, to acquire some business experience in London.^[3]

In 1880 H.E. Fulford joined the British Consular Service, and was sent to work in China.^[1] In 1887, when he was a student interpreter at the British Consulate in Newchwang (today's Yingkou),^[6] he joined two British officers on leave from India - H. E. M. James of the Indian Civil Service and Francis Younghusband of the British Army - and went with them on a tour of Manchuria. 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.^[7]

Fulford served for a number of years in the British consulate in Newchwang. He became the consul there in 1899,^[8] and served in that position during the Boxer Uprising and the Russo-Japanese War, informing the British governments on the events as they developed.^[9] In 1906, he was appointed the British Consul General in Mukden (now, Shenyang).^[2] Later, he held a number of other consular posts throughout China. He served as a Consul General in Hankou (1911), acting Consul General in Shanghai (1913), and Consul General in Tianjin (1912-1917).^[1]

In 1917, Fulford retired and returned to Australia. On May 15, 1929, his daughter found him shot dead, apparently in a suicide, in the bedroom of his Melbourne residence.^[1][3]

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