Noël Ballay
| Noël Eugène Ballay | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Lieutenant governor of Gabon | |
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In office 1886–1889 |
|
| Governor of French Guinea | |
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In office 1891 – November 1900 |
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| Governor-General of French West Africa | |
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In office 1 November 1900 – 26 January 1902 |
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| Preceded by | Jean-Baptiste Chaudié |
| Succeeded by | Ernest Roume |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
14 July 1847 Fontenay-sur-Eure |
| Died | 26 January 1902 (aged 54) Saint-Louis, Senegal |
| Nationality | French |
| Profession | Doctor |
Dr. Noël Eugène Ballay (14 July 1847 - 26 January 1902) was a French auxiliary doctor of the French navy, and a poet. He was an explorer and colonial administrator, the second Governor General of French West Africa.
Noël Ballay was born at Fontenay-sur-Eure on 14 July 1847, the younger son of a farm worker. He attended church schools at Bonneval and then Chartres, then a lay college, graduating as a bachelor in letters in 1864 and in science in 1865. He then became a student at the Faculty of Medecine in Paris. During the 1870 Franco-Prussian War he enlisted in the National Guard of Eure-et-Loir, where he was promoted to sergeant major, fought at Fréteval and later fought for the Commune of Paris. After peace was restored he returned to the Faculty of Medicine, and in 1871 started a course as an extern of the Paris hospitals, serving in the Hôpital de la Charité in 1872, the Hôpital Beaujon in 1873 and in St-Antoine with Dr Duplay in 1874.
The French at that time were in a race with Leopold II of Belgium to establish physical occupation of the Congo region. Ballay saw an advertisement by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who was looking for a young doctor to accompany him on a mission of exploration in Equatorial Africa, still a relatively unknown area. He went to meet Brazza in person, and was accepted as medical assistant since he had not completed his course with a thesis, required to qualify as a doctor. In May 1875 Brazza and Ballay left Bordeaux in an officially sponsored voyage to explore the Ogooué River.
The first expedition in what is now Gabon was challenging, a journey of thousands of kilometers from the mouth of the Ogooué through the forest, up into the Batéké Plateau and down to the Congo basin, where they found the Alima river. They descended this river for two days before turning back, exhausted by three years of fever, illness and hostile local people. They were unaware that the Alima was a tributary of the Congo River. On the return journey the explorers were forced to abandon much of their equipment and the specimens they had collected.
During the expedition he treated victims of a smallpox epidemic. He also participated in the second expedition, which started in 1879, and was responsible for transporting the components of a steamboat from France to Gabon. Due to delays and damage, he did not reach Brazza until June 1883 at Diélé, near Franceville. He represented France at the Berlin Conference in 1885.
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