Jean-Baptiste Cécille

Jean-Baptiste Thomas Médée Cécille (; 16 October 1787, Rouen – 9 November 1873) was a French Admiral and politician who played an important role in the French intervention of Vietnam. He also circumnavigated the globe.

Military career In 1837–1839, Cécille circumnavigated the world as the commander of the corvette Héroïne. He left Brest on 1 July 1837 with the objective of protecting French whaling ships. He contributed to the survey of New Zealand.

In 1843, the French Foreign Minister François Guizot sent a fleet to Vietnam under Admiral Cécille and Captain Charner, which started the French intervention in Vietnam. The move was partially in response to Britain's victory in the First Opium War, which France hoped to counterbalance by accessing China from the south. The pretext however was to support British initiatives in China, and to fight the persecution of French missionaries in Vietnam. The fleet, accompanied by the diplomat Théodore de Lagrené, tried to seize the island of Basilan in order to create a base similar to Hong Kong, but projects had to be abandoned following the strong opposition of Spain claiming the island was part of the Philippines.

In 1845 Guizot sent Cécille to Vietnam to obtain the release of a Catholic missionary, Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre. He then sailed to Nagasaki but was denied landing.

In September 1846, Cécille sailed to Korea in order to obtain the release of an imprisoned Korean priest named Andrew Kim Taegon, but Kim was soon executed.

In 1847, Cécille sent two warships (Gloire and Victorieuse) to Tourane in Vietnam to obtain the liberation of two imprisoned French missionaries, Bishop Dominique Lefèbvre (imprisoned for a second time as he had re-entered Vietnam secretly) and Duclos, and freedom of worship for Catholics in Vietnam. As negotiations drew on without results, on 15 April 1847 a fight erupted between the French fleet and Vietnamese ships, three of them being sunk as a result in the Bombardment of Đà Nẵng. The French fleet then sailed away.

A peak on the Île de la Possession in the Crozet Islands, where he once landed, was named "Mont Cécille" (46°23'00" S, 51°41'00" E) after him in the 1960s.

The French cruiser Amiral Cécille (1888-scrapped 1919) was named in his honour.