Parkes, Harry, Sir, 1828-1885

Name Entries

Information

person

Name Entries *

Parkes, Harry, Sir, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry, Sir, 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry Smith, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry Smith, 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry Smith

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry Smith

Parkes, Harry 1828-1885 Sir

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry 1828-1885 Sir

Parkes, Harry 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry Smith, Sir, 1828-1885, diplomate

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry Smith, Sir, 1828-1885, diplomate

Parkes, Harry Smith, Sir, active 1860-1861, KCB, diplomatist

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry Smith, Sir, active 1860-1861, KCB, diplomatist

Sir Harry Smith Parkes

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Sir Harry Smith Parkes

巴夏礼

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

巴夏礼

Smith Parkes, Harry 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Smith Parkes, Harry 1828-1885

Ba xia li

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Ba xia li

巴夏禮

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

巴夏禮

Hali Shimisi Baxiali, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Hali Shimisi Baxiali, 1828-1885

哈里· 史密斯· 巴夏礼, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

哈里· 史密斯· 巴夏礼, 1828-1885

Pak, Haeri 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Pak, Haeri 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry S. Sir, 1828-1885 (Harry Smith),

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry S. Sir, 1828-1885 (Harry Smith),

Pāk, Hǣrī Sir 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Pāk, Hǣrī Sir 1828-1885

巴夏礼 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

巴夏礼 1828-1885

Baxiali, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Baxiali, 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry Smith Sir 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry Smith Sir 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry S. Sir 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry S. Sir 1828-1885

Baxiali, Hali Shimisi 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Baxiali, Hali Shimisi 1828-1885

Parkes, Harry S. 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Parkes, Harry S. 1828-1885

Pāk, Hǣrī, Sir, 1828-1885

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Name :

Pāk, Hǣrī, Sir, 1828-1885

Genders

Exist Dates

Exist Dates - Date Range

1828

1828

Birth

1885

1885

Death

Show Fuzzy Range Fields
Exist Dates - Date Range

1860

active 1860

Active

1861

active 1861

Active

Show Fuzzy Range Fields

Biographical History

British diplomat and minister to Japan, 1865-1883.

From the description of Papers, 1853-1872. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 20072032

Epithet: KCB, diplomatist

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000621.0x000059

Sir Harry Smith Parkes (1828-1885), British minister to Japan, 1865-1883, and subsequently to China and Korea, 1883-1885.

Parkes was born on 24 February 1828 at Bloxwich, near Walsall. He was the youngest of three children, and the only son, of an ironmaster and his wife. By the age of five he had been orphaned, and in 1841, after education at the King Edward the Sixth school in Birmingham, he proceeded, on account of a family connection, to China. After a short period studying Chinese, he joined the suite of Sir Henry Pottinger in the Yangtze campaign of 1842, which brought the First China War to a conclusion, and as a fourteen-year-old he witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Nanking. In September 1843 he commenced work for the British consular service in Canton, and in the next few years served as interpreter at posts in Amoy, Foochow, Shanghai and Canton. In 1854 he was appointed consul in Amoy, and the following year he travelled to Siam to assist Sir John Bowring in negotiations for a British treaty with that kingdom.

From 1856 to 1858 Parkes was acting consul at Canton. Shortly after taking up this post he assumed direct superintendence, under Bowring's guidance from Hong Kong, of the case of the lorcha Arrow. The boarding of this vessel by the Chinese, aggravating as it did British grievances arising from the flouting of treaty obligations by the authorities in Canton, led to the outbreak of the Second China War. Parkes' inflexible conduct, whilst approved by his superiors, became a source of abiding controversy. After the capture of Canton Parkes was appointed one of the three allied commissioners in the city. He was made a C.B. in 1859.

Allied forces returned to China in 1860 to assert the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin. At this time Parkes was instrumental in acquiring as British territory the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong harbour, intended primarily as a depot for troops in transit. Parkes accompanied the expedition to the Peiho in the office of Joint Chinese Secretary of Lord Elgin's Special Embassy, and had leading roles in the reduction of the Taku forts and in negotiations with imperial commissioners at Tientsin and Tungchow. When fighting was renewed during the course of these negotiations, Parkes and his entourage were arrested and transported to Peking. Several of the party were killed by the rigours of captivity; Parkes himself narrowly escaped execution. After three weeks he was freed through the agency of Prince Kung. Parkes' steadfast behaviour throughout the ordeal met with general praise in Britain, and when he returned to England in 1862, after having established consulates on the Yangtze at Chinkiang, Kiukiang and Hankow, he was lionized in society and appointed a K.C.B. at the age of thirty-four.

Parkes returned to China in 1864 to take up the consulship at Shanghai, and in March 1865 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Japan. That country was in a state of political turmoil that culminated in the Meiji Restoration of 1868. It was a strength of Parkes' diplomacy that he recognised early the importance of the emperor in Japanese affairs, and was accordingly in a position to assume pre-eminence amongst Western diplomats after the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate. In the course of eighteen years as minister in Japan, Parkes played an important part in the transition of the country from feudalism to industrial modernity; his influence was felt particularly in the spheres of currency, finance, and railway construction. In 1872 he accompanied the 'Iwakura Mission' on its visit to Great Britain; he also spent the period from November 1879 to January 1882 in England, and in 1881 was made a G.C.M.G. Further controversy dogged the later years of Parkes' career in Japan, largely on account of his attitude towards the question of treaty revision.

In July 1883 Parkes was appointed minister plenipotentiary to China. One of his first actions was to travel to Seoul to conclude a treaty with Korea; in March 1884 he was additionally made minister plenipotentiary to that country, and returned there to ratify the treaty. Parkes' tenure of the Peking legation coincided with the Franco-Chinese War, and the disruptions caused by this episode added to the burdens of his work. Sir Harry Parkes died in Peking after a brief illness on 22 March 1885.

From the guide to the Sir Harry Smith Parkes: Papers, 14th century-1893, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)

eng

Latn

External Related CPF

https://viaf.org/viaf/822398

https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q3127920

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n84038629

https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n84038629

Other Entity IDs (Same As)

Sources

Loading ...

Resource Relations

Loading ...

Internal CPF Relations

Loading ...

Languages Used

Subjects

Administration

Nationalities

Activities

Occupations

Legal Statuses

Places

United States

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Liu-ch'iu Islands (Taiwan)

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Ionian Islands, Greece

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Mexico, Central America

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

China, Asia

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Cape Province, South Africa

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Brussels, Belgium

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Ionian Islands, Greece

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Italy, Europe

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Shadwell, Middlesex

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

China, Asia

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Bonin Islands (Japan)

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Japan

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Chelsea, Middlesex

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

China

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Japan

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Gravesend, Kent

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

China

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Corfu, the Ionian Islands

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

United States of America

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Wandsworth, Surrey

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

United States of America

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Leigh, Lancashire

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Kensington, Middlesex

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Korea

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Hong Kong

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Hanwell, Middlesex

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Suez Canal, Egypt

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Birmingham, Warwickshire

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Suez Canal, Egypt

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Portsmouth, Hampshire

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Great Britain

as recorded (not vetted)

AssociatedPlace

Convention Declarations

<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>

General Contexts

Structure or Genealogies

Mandates

Identity Constellation Identifier(s)

w63g5gc6

87733798