Stirling Fessenden

Stirling Fessenden (费信惇, Fèixìndūn) was an American lawyer who led the Shanghai Municipal Council through the crises of the 1920s and then ran its administration for another decade.

He arrived in 1903 and practised law, and in 1919 advised the Chinese Ratepayers’ Association in its dealings with the Council. Elected to the Council in 1920, he became chairman in 1923 and held the post until 1929. His term covered the May Thirtieth Movement of 1925 and the arrival of the Northern Expedition in 1927. The gazetteer says that in April 1927 he allowed armed groups to pass through the settlement to act against striking workers.

In 1929 he moved to the new post of secretary-general, the Council’s chief executive for politics and external relations, and advised successive chairmen until he retired in June 1939. After the Pacific War began he was interned by the Japanese and died in a Shanghai camp in 1943.