View source for Amédée-François Lamy

{{Short description|French military officer (1858–1900)}}
{{No footnotes|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name =Amédée-François Lamy
| image =CommandantLamy.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1858|2|7}}
| birth_place = [[Mougins]], Alpes-Maritimes, France
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1900|4|22|1858|2|7}}
| death_place =Kousséri
| nationality = French
| other_names =
| occupation =French commander [[Major (rank)|Major]]
| known_for =[[Battle of Kousséri]]
}}
'''Amédée-François Lamy''' ({{IPA|fr|amede fʁɑ̃swa lami}}) was a French military officer.  He was born at [[Mougins]], in the French ''[[Departments of France|département]]'' of [[Alpes-Maritimes]] on 7 February 1858 and died in the [[battle of Kousséri]] on 22 April 1900 as a French [[explorer]] officer.
== Biography ==
=== Family origins ===
He is the son of lieutenant Joseph Sosthène Lamy (1818–1891), originally from Nancy, and of Elisabeth Giraud, from an old and notable Provençal family, whose father Louis Giraud, notary, had married Honorine Courmes, from Grasse, the latter was the daughter of [[Claude-Marie Courmes]], mayor of Grasse from 1830 to 1835.<ref>Robert Maestri, Commandant Lamy, un officier français aux colonies, Maisonneuve et Larose, 2000, {{p.|24}}.([https://books.google.com/books?id=_6ZxAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Sa+m%C3%A8re+Elisabeth%2C+n%C3%A9e+Giraud%22 lire en ligne)]</ref>
===Early years===
Lamy's ambition to become an officer developed very early; at ten-years-old, he entered the [[Prytanée national militaire]], where he won the first prize in Geography in the general concourse of all the department's school, a possible sign of his future colonial career. In 1877 he entered at [[École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]], the foremost French [[military academy]].
===Military career===
[[File:Itinéraire général - Mission Saharienne Foureau-Lamy, 1898-1900 ; d'après les positions astronomiques de F. Foureau, et itinéraire de retour de Ch. Dorian... 1 - 10 000 000 Dressé par V. Huot - btv1b530618549.jpg|thumb|[[Fernand Foureau]]-Amédée-François Lamy Sahara Mission (1890-1900) map]]
[[File:Mission Foureau-Lamy.jpg|thumb|The Foureau–Lamy Mission 1898–1900]]
Lamy began his career in 1879 as a [[second lieutenant]] in the First regiment of [[Algeria]]n [[tirailleur]]s. He discovered [[Sahara]]n Africa, and took part in the French occupation of [[Tunisia]]; he was sent in 1884 to [[Tonkin]], where he remained until 1886. The following year he was back in Algeria, where he became ''aide-de-camp'' to the General in command of the division quartered in [[Algiers]] in 1887, and resumed his previous interest in the Sahara and learned to exploit the qualities of the [[méhariste]]s, the camel cavalry. Fascinated by the desert, he learned how to live with little: "Personally, I will be really happy only when I'll be able to live without neither drinking nor eating. At the moment, I'm attempting this kind of existence, but obtaining only a meagre success. I'm still obliged to eat more than six [[date palm|dates]] at my meals: this is afflicting!".
In 1893 Lamy participated in the Le Chatelier Mission ([[Middle Congo]]) where he was in charge of studying the project of a railway between [[Brazzaville]] and the coast, and also of making botanical, geological and geographical studies. Through [[Alfred Le Chatelier]], Lamy later met [[Fernand Foureau]],  with whom he assembled the Foureau-Lamy Mission in 1898, charged, with another two expeditions, the [[Gentil Mission|Gentil]] and [[Voulet–Chanoine Mission|Voulet–Chanoine]] missions, to conquer [[Chad]] and unify all French dominions in [[West Africa]].
[[Image:Mort du Commandant Lamy 2.png|thumb|French newspaper view of the death of Lamy, surrounded by Tiraileurs Sénégalais troops]]
Foureau and Lamy proceeded from [[Algiers]] through the Sahara, and met with the other two missions at [[Kousséri]] on 21 April 1900. The following day the united French forces confronted [[Rabih az-Zubayr]], a [[Sudan]]ese warlord who had created an empire in the [[Chad Basin]]. In the [[battle of Kousséri|following battle]], in which Lamy was in command with 700 riflemen, while the French reported a crushing victory, Lamy was killed, as was Rabih. In his honour, the first French governor, [[Émile Gentil]], named the capital of the new French territory of Chad [[Fort-Lamy]], which name it bore until it was renamed N'Djamena in 1973.
In 1970, Chad issued an undated gold 1,000 francs coin as part of its tenth independence celebrations. One side features Lamy's head, with a military style collar, and the legend ''COMMANDANT LAMY 1900''.
== National honours ==
* [[File:Legion Honneur Officier ribbon.svg|50px]] [[Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur|Officier de la Légion d'honneur]]
== Tribute ==
* [[Fort-Lamy]], current capital of Chad ([[N'Djaména]], since 1973) was founded by [[Émile Gentil]] on May 29, 1900 who gave it this name in his memory.
* Commander Lamy Monumen, [[Algiers]],
* Commander Lamy Monumen, [[N'Djamena]],
* Commander Lamy Monumen, [[Mougins]]
* Place du Commandant Lamy, 06250 [[Mougins]]
* Avenue du Commandant Lamy, 06250 [[Mougins]]
* Impasse du Commandant Lamy, 06250 [[Mougins]]
* [[Rue du Commandant-Lamy|rue du Commandant Lamy]], 75011 Paris
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 92400 [[Courbevoie]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 51100 [[Reims]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 06110 [[Le Cannet]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 62300 [[Lens (Pas-de-Calais)|Lens]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 89000 [[Auxerre]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, 13007 [[Marseille]]
* Rue du Commandant Lamy, [[Casablanca]] [[Maroc]]
* Place Commandant Lamy, 83000 [[Toulon]]
* In [[Cannes]], there is the Place du Commandant Lamy which leads to: rue d'Alger, rue d'Oran, rue de Constantine and rue de Bône.
There is a Lamy barracks in Longuyon 54
<gallery>
File:inauguration_monument_Lamy.png|{{center|Inauguration of the Lamy monument in [[Algiers]]}}
File:Alger_statue_du_commandant_Lamy.png|{{center|Statue of the Lamy monument in [[Algiers]]}}
File:Francois_Joseph_Amedee_Lamy.jpg|{{center|Commander Lamy<br>Memorial to [[Mougins]]}}
</gallery>
==Bibliography==
* Marcel Souzy : Les coloniaux français illustres B. Arnaud Lyon vers 1940
* Gentil, Émile (1971). La chute de l'empire de Rabah. Hachette, 567–577.
* Ayakanmi Ayandele, Emmanuel (1979). Nigerian Historical Studies. Routledge, 130–131. {{ISBN|0-7146-3113-2}}.
* Pakenham, Thomas (1992). The Scramble for Africa. Abacus, 515–516. {{ISBN|0-349-10449-2}}.
==See also==
*[[Henri Bretonnet]] Mission
*[[Battle of Togbao]] 1899
*[[Voulet–Chanoine Mission]]
*[[Paul Joalland]]
*[[Émile Gentil]]
*[[Rabih az-Zubayr]]
*[[Battle of Kousséri]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{French colonial campaigns}}
{{Former French colonies}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamy, Amedee-Francois}}
[[Category:19th-century French military personnel]]
[[Category:People of French West Africa]]
[[Category:People of French Equatorial Africa]]
[[Category:1858 births]]
[[Category:1900 deaths]]
[[Category:Courmes family]]
[[Category:French military personnel killed in action]]
[[Category:People from Alpes-Maritimes]]