Edward Henry Strobel

Edward Henry Strobel (December 7, 1855, Charleston – January 15, 1908, Bangkok) was a United States diplomat and a scholar in international law.[1]

Strobel was born in Charleston, South Carolina on December 7, 1855.[1] He graduated from Harvard College in 1877 and Harvard Law School in 1882.[1] He practiced law in New York from 1883 to 1885.[1] He was admitted to the New York bar in 1883. In 1885 he was appointed Secretary of the Legation of the United States to Spain, serving until 1890.[2]

Based on notes from his period in Madrid, Strobel wrote a book on the Spanish revolution in 1868.[3] Strobel returned to become Third Assistant Secretary of State in Washington, D.C. during 1893–1894. He served as U.S. Minister to Ecuador in 1894, and to Chile from 1894 to 1897. He returned to Boston in 1898 to become the Bemis Professor of International Law.[1]

In 1903 Strobel took a leave of absence to represent the Kingdom of Siam at the International Peace Court in The Hague in 1903. In 1906 he moved to Bangkok to become the American Adviser in Foreign Affairs to the government King Chulalongkorn of Siam.[4][5][6] Strobel played an important role in negotiating a treaty between France and Siam, which was signed on signed on March 23, 1907.[1]

Edward Strobel died in Bangkok, Siam on January 15, 1908.[7] He had suffered blood poisoning after a long illness that started with the bite of an insect in Egypt two years earlier.[8] He was cremated in a ceremony on February 5 1908, at which King Chulalongkorn himself lighted the funeral pyre.[9][10] There is a memorial stone dedicated to Strobel in the churchyard of the Unitarian Church in his hometown Charleston, South Carolina.

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Edward Henry Strobel". American Journal of International Law. 2 (1): 178–179. 1908. doi:10.2307/2186571. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2186571.
  2. ^ "National Capital Topics: Appointments to Office" (PDF). The New York Times. Washington. June 23, 1885. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. ^ Strobel, Edward Henry (1898). The Spanish Revolution, 1868–1875. Boston: Small, Maynard. pp. 293.
  4. ^ "To Be Siam's Adviser: Prof. Strobel of Harvard Resigns to Take New Post". The New York Times. Cambridge. December 1, 1906. p. 1. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  5. ^ Oblas, Peter (1972). "Treaty Revision and the Role of the American Foreign Affairs Adviser 1909–1925" (free). Journal of the Siam Society. JSS Vol. 60.1 (digital). Siam Heritage Trust: images 2–4, 10–13. Retrieved March 17, 2013. Edward Strobel was the first American Adviser in Foreign Affairs.
  6. ^ Numnonda, Thamsook (1974). "The First American Advisers in Thai History" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. JSS Vol.62.2f (digital). Siam Society. Retrieved September 7, 2013. The eventful forty-two year reign of King Chulalongkorn of Thailand (1868–1910) was a landmark in Thai history. It was the period that Thailand began to develop herself into a modern state, with the abolition of extrality (extraterritoriality), the negotiations of treaties, the reform of law and judicial administration, and the reorganization of governmental agencies. The achievement of these aims was, in fact, partly due to the work of the "foreign advisers" who shared roles in the affairs of this small Asian country.
  7. ^ "The Late Mr. E. H. Strobel". Straits Echo. 29 January 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-12-01 – via newspaperSG.
  8. ^ "Edward E. Strobel Dead: Had Been General Adviser of the Government of Siam Since 1903" (PDF). The New York Times. Bangkok. January 13, 1908. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  9. ^ "King Light Strobel's Pyre: Body of American Adviser to Chulalongkorn of Siam Cremated Yesterday". The New York Times. February 6, 1909. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  10. ^ "Cremation at Bangkok". The Straits Times. 9 February 1909. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-12-05 – via newspaperSG.