James David Bourchier (18 December 1850 at Baggotstown, nearBruff inCounty Limerick – 30 December 1920 inSofia, Bulgaria) was anIrishjournalist and political activist.[1][2] He lived inSofia from 1892 to 1915. Bourchier was an honourable member of the Sofia Journalists' Society. He acted as an intermediary between the Balkan states in the beginning and at the conclusion of theBalkan Wars of 1912–1913.[3]
Bourchier was born in Limerick and studied atPortora Royal School,Enniskillen andTrinity College Dublin, where he waselected a scholar in classics in 1871.[4] Deeply engaged in the processes that were taking place on the Balkanpeninsula at that time, Bourchier supported the idea that the island ofCrete be annexed byGreece.[5]
In his writings he criticised certain clauses of theBucharest Peace Treaty of 1913, which he deemed unfair toBulgaria. As a result of the treaty Bulgaria lost the southern part ofDobrudja (which was annexed byRomania), and part ofMacedonia.
Bourchier also expressed his strong support for Bulgaria during theParis Peace Conference of 1919–1920. The conference produced five treaties, including theTreaty of Neuilly (the peace agreement between the Allies and Bulgaria). Under the terms of the treaty, Bulgaria had to cede part ofWestern Thrace to Greece and several border areas toYugoslavia.Southern Dobrudja was confirmed in Romanian possession, reparations were required, and theBulgarian Army was limited to 20,000 men.
With his numerous publications in the British press, and in his private and social correspondence, Bourchier repeatedly voiced his sympathy towards Bulgaria and its people. According toThe Times: "He was a private man, nervous, haunted by growing deafness, probably homosexual, but he became the close confidant of kings and ambassadors in their labyrinthine intrigues."[6] After his death in December 1920, James Bourchier was buried near theRila Monastery in southwestern Bulgaria. He remains the only foreigner ever allowed to be buried at one of the greatest monasteries in Bulgaria, on behalf of a grateful Bulgarian nation.
Bourchier Peak onRila Mountain, James Bourchier Boulevard andJames Bourchier Metro Station inSofia, James Bourchier Boulevard in Blagoevgrad andBourchier Cove onSmith Island in theSouth Shetland Islands,Antarctica are named after James David Bourchier.[7]
In 1990 the recently established Bulgarian Society for British Studies devoted its first national conference to the 140th anniversary of Bourchier’s birth, in Limerick, Ireland, and 70th anniversary of his death.
Today James Bourchier Boulevard is a busy street in Sofia with numerous administrative and office buildings on it. Its most notable landmark is probably theHotel Marinela Sofia. The Faculty of Physics, the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, and the Faculty of Chemistry ofSofia University are also located there, as is the office of the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria and the headquarters of theBulgarian Red Cross. There are also streets named after him inVarna andBlagoevgrad.
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