Prosper Giquel

Prosper Giquel
Prosper Giquel (1835-1886).
Nickname(s)	日意格
Born	1835
Died	1886
Allegiance	France
Service/branch	French Navy

Prosper Marie Giquel (1835–1886), sometimes spelled Gicquel, was a French naval officer who played an important role in the modernization of 19th century China. His Chinese name was 日意格.

Prosper Giquel first arrived in China in 1857 as part of the allied assault forces of the Arrow War. Taking the opportunity that service in the Canton occupation force allowed, Giquel began the study of Chinese. In late 1861 he joined the Imperial Maritime Customs Service under Robert Hart, as the director of the Ningpo office and remained there until the city was captured by the forces of the Taiping Rebellion in December 1861. He was again the Commissioner of Customs for Ningpo in 1864.

After spending the following spring working in the coordinated French and English campaign to drive the rebels from Shanghai, Giquel returned to Ningpo to organize the force which eventually became the Ever-Triumphant Army (常捷軍), also known as the "Franco-Chinese force". The force numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 men. On 15 March 1863, the force, under the command of Ensign Paul d'Aiguebelle (德克碑) captured the city of Shao-hsing from the Taiping rebels. Prosper Giquel took command of the "Franco-Chinese force" when Paul d'Aiguebelle returned to France, but the force was soon dissolved in October 1864, in agreement with Zuo Zongtang.

In 1866 Giquel became involved in the organization and planning for the Foochow Dockyard project envisioned by Zuo Zongtang. From 1867 to 1874 he served as European director of the project which Shen Pao-chen, as the imperial commissioner, headed. The objective of the dockyard was to create a modern Chinese fleet of warships and transports, and to educated technicians in Western sciences. These efforts contributed to China's Self-Strengthening Movement of acquiring Western knowledge (similarly the Nankin Arsenal was put under the responsibility of the Englishman Halliday Macartney).

Having completed his direct administration of the project by 1874, Giquel continued to serve the dockyard by working as a consultant, purchasing agent, and co-director of the European Educational Mission in 1877. The educational mission's goal was to provide advanced technical training to complement the dockyard's instructional program.