José Augusto Soares Ribeiro de Castro (Valhelhas

Valhelhas

Valhelhas is a parish in the municipality of Guarda in Portugal. It covers an area of 18.95 km² and had a population of 509 as of 2001....

, 7 April 1868 - 31 July 1929; ʒuˈzɛ dɨ ˈkaʃtɾu, was a Portuguese lawyer, journalist and politician. He graduated in Law at the University of Coimbra, and was a lawyer in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

 and Guarda

Guarda, Portugal

Guarda is a city in Guarda Municipality, Portugal. The city has a population of 32 111Guarda was founded in 1199 by the second king of Portugal, Sancho I....

. A member of freemasonry

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

, since 1868, he was originally a monarchist and a member of the liberal Progressive Party (Portugal)

Progressive Party (Portugal)

The Progressive Party , along with the their opponent the Partido Regenerador, was a political party in Portugal during the constitutional monarchy at the end of the 19th century.-Ideology:...

, but he joined the Portuguese Republican Party

Portuguese Republican Party

The Portuguese Republican Party was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of monarchy that proposed and conducted the substitution of the Constitutional Monarchy by the Portuguese First Republic....

, in 1881. He was the main redactor of the newspaper O Districto da Guarda, since its foundation in 1878, and the founder of the first republican newspaper of the province, O Povo Português, in 1882. During the Portuguese First Republic

Portuguese First Republic

The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...

, he remained in the Republican Party. He was President of the Ministry (Prime Minister), after the failed attempt of general Joaquim Pimenta de Castro

Joaquim Pimenta de Castro

Joaquim Pereira Pimenta de Castro, 10th Count of Pimenta de Castro was a Portuguese army officer and politician. He was a career military officer reaching the position of General, also graduated in Mathematics by the University of Coimbra. In 1908, he was nominated commander of the 3rd Military...

 to rule without the parliament, and was in office, from 17 May to 29 November 1915.