Augusto de Vasconcelos


Augusto César de Almeida de Vasconcelos Correia, GCSE, better known as Augusto de Vasconcelos was a Portuguese surgeon, politician and diplomat, who served as 57th Prime Minister of Portugal.

Career

He graduated at the Lisbon Medico-Surgical School in 1891, where he also taught, later becoming a Professor of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.
A republican since his youth, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the first Constitutional Government of the Portuguese First Republic, whose Prime Minister was João Pinheiro Chagas, from October 12, 1911 to November 12, 1911. He succeeded Chagas as Prime Minister of another Portuguese Republican Party government, which was in power from November 11, 1911 to June 4, 1912. In that government, too, he held the post of Foreign Minister as well as that of Prime Minister. He was Foreign Minister again from June 16, 1912 to January 9, 1913.
Later he served as Plenipotentiary Minister in Madrid and London, during World War I, which Portugal entered in 1916 on the Allies' side. Subsequently, he led the Portuguese delegation at the Peace Conference, in Paris, in 1919.
After that he concentrated on diplomacy, in the service of the League of Nations as a Delegate of Portugal. He helped to solve international conflicts, like the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1935. From 1935 to 1937 he occupied the office of President of the League of Nations.

Decorations

He received the Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint James of the Sword, the Order of Isabel the Catholic, the Order of the Crown of Belgium and both the Orders of Merit of Chile and Peru and was Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur of France, etc.

Family

He was a son of Júlio César de Vasconcelos Correia, an Engineer and a Shipbuilder, and wife Constança Libânia Auta de Almeida. His father was a natural son of António César de Vasconcelos Correia, 1st Viscount and 1st Count of Torres Novas and 93rd Governor-General of India, thus being a second cousin once removed of Fernando Peyroteo and three times removed of José Couceiro.
He married in Lisbon, Santa Catarina, Hermínia Laura de Albuquerque Henriques Moreira, widow of Augusto Pereira Leite and daughter of José Joaquim Henriques Moreira, Division General, Commander of the Municipal Guard, Commander of the Order of Aviz and Knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword, etc., and wife Maria Hermínia de Albuquerque de Mesquita e Paiva, daughter of the 2nd Viscount of Oleiros, and had: