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People · British consul, interpreter, author

Thomas Taylor Meadows

密迪乐Mìdílè · 1815–1868

British interpreter who came to Shanghai in 1852 and later served as consul; his book on the Taiping rising is an early English account of the movement.

Sepia photograph of a bearded man in a dark jacket and bow tie, seated on a chair beside a potted plant.
Thomas Taylor Meadows (Vacher-Hilditch Collection, VH02-201).Photo: Vacher-Hilditch Collection, Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, via Historical Photographs of China, University of Bristol, CC BY 4.0 · Licence

Thomas Taylor Meadows (密迪乐, Mìdílè) was a British consular interpreter who worked in Shanghai in the 1850s and later served as consul there. His importance is mainly as a writer: his book on the Taiping rising is one of the fuller early English accounts of the movement.

According to the Shanghai Concessions Gazetteer, he studied Chinese in Munich, was posted to Hong Kong in 1843 and worked at the British consulate in Guangzhou before moving to Shanghai as interpreter in early 1852. He went home on sick leave in the winter of that year. Back in Shanghai in 1856 he served as vice-consul and was soon promoted to consul at Ningbo and Shanghai.

In February 1861 he wrote to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Russell, expressing sympathy for the Taiping cause. He was then transferred to Shengjing and Niuzhuang, where he died in 1868. The gazetteer also credits him with translating Manchu materials into English.

Timeline

  1. 1843Sent to Hong Kong, then to the British consulate at Guangzhou as interpreter1
  2. 1852Transferred to Shanghai as interpreter1
  3. 1856Returned to Shanghai as vice-consul, then consul at Ningbo and Shanghai1
  4. 1861Wrote to the Foreign Secretary expressing sympathy for the Taiping movement1
  5. 1868Died at his post at Niuzhuang1

Sources

  1. 1.Shanghai Concessions Gazetteer, part 6 People, ch. 1 Biographies: 密迪乐（Thomas Taylor Meadows　1815～1868年） (上海租界志·第六篇 人物·第一章 人物传略·密迪乐（Thomas Taylor Meadows　1815～1868年）), 上海市档案馆（编）, 上海社会科学院出版社；上海市地方志办公室数字方志（在线）, 2001 — 上海租界志·人物传略·密迪乐gazetteer