Théodore Maunoir
Encyclopedia
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
surgeon and co-founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
(ICRC).
Théodore Maunoir was born to a wealthy family of doctors in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. Following family tradition he studied medicine in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and gained his doctorate in surgery in 1833. After his return to his home city, he became a member of the Geneva Commission for Hygiene and Health and the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. He was considered extremely intelligent and charming with an excellent sense of humor. When he married for the first time, he took on additional children from his wife's previous marriage. When she died, he married again and had further children with his second wife. His family, especially in his efforts in raising his children, played a large role in his life aside from his work as a doctor and medical consultant.
After the publication of Henry Dunant
Henry Dunant
Jean Henri Dunant , aka Henry Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist. During a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern day Italy...
's book A Memory of Solferino in 1862, Maunoir, together with Gustave Moynier
Gustave Moynier
Gustave Moynier was a Swiss Jurist who was active in many charitable organizations in Geneva.He was a co-founder of the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded", which became the International Committee of the Red Cross after 1876...
, Guillaume-Henri Dufour and Louis Appia
Louis Appia
Louis Paul Amédée Appia was a Swiss surgeon with special merit in the area of military medicine. In 1863 he became a member of the Geneva "Committee of Five", which was the precursor to the International Committee of the Red Cross...
, joined the "Committee of Five" which was founded in February 1863 as a commission of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. Soon afterwards, the five men decided to rename the committee to the "International Committee for Relief to Wounded Soldiers," which by 1876 evolved into the "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC). In the initial meetings of committee, Maunoir supported Dunant's ideas to propel the concepts behind the Red Cross into a widespread social movement reaching out to as many people as possible, instead of only creating an organization through negotiations with powerful political and military figures.
From 26 to 29 October 1863, an international conference took place in Geneva to examine the practical implementation of Dunant's ideas. When differences between the delegates about the use of volunteers in caring for the wounded threatened to cause the conference to fail, Maunoir gave a persuasive speech that helped avert this result.
Maunoir was especially close friends with Louis Appia
Louis Appia
Louis Paul Amédée Appia was a Swiss surgeon with special merit in the area of military medicine. In 1863 he became a member of the Geneva "Committee of Five", which was the precursor to the International Committee of the Red Cross...
, who was also a professional surgeon. Maunoir was a sort of mentor in Geneva society to 12-years younger Appia, who had only first come to Geneva at the age of 31. Maunoir remained a member of the ICRC until his early and unexpected death in 1869. His successor in the Committee was the local Geneva politician Louis Micheli de la Rive.