Adhémard Leclère

Adhémard Leclère (12 May 1853 – 16 March 1917) was a French diplomat, economist, politician and ethnologist.

Born into the French anticlerical and republican tradition, he became interested in socialism at an early age and was involved in the foundation of the labour journal The Proletarian, of which he became editor-in-chief. A typographer, he founded Typographie Francaise (official journal of the union of French workers), and collaborated among other things in La Justice, La Revue Scientifique, La Deutsche Revue and other foreign reviews.

In May 1886 he was nominated a Résident (more or less a governor) in the French protectorate of Cambodia, first in Kampot (until 1890) then Kratie-Sambor (1890-1894), then Kratie and finally Phnom Penh, where he served as résident-maire from 1899 to 1903. In 1908 he was named inspector and advisor to the Résident Supérieure (the chief advisor to the Cambodian government), a position which he occupied until 1911.

As founder and vice-president of the Ethnological Society of Paris, he was responsible for numerous works on the language, customs, law religion and culture of Cambodia.