Juan Enrique Tocornal
Juan Enrique Tocornal Doursther (5 April 1865 – 15 July 1955) was a Chilean lawyer, diplomat and Conservative Party politician.
He served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile between 1891 and 1897 and subsequently held cabinet office as Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Worship and Colonization. His later career included diplomatic appointments as Chilean ambassador to Argentina and the United Kingdom.
Tocornal wrote on economic and international affairs for several Chilean newspapers, including El Chileno, La Unión, El Ferrocarril and El Mercurio. He was also a member of the Club de la Unión.
His distinctions included a gold medal awarded in a humanities competition at the University of Chile. He was also appointed Commander of Spain's Order of Charles III and Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy.
Early life and career
Tocornal Doursther was born in Santiago on 5 April 1865 to Manuel Tomás Tocornal Grez and Carolina Doursther Villavicencio. He was educated at Colegio San Ignacio before studying law at the University of Chile.
He qualified as a lawyer on 3 April 1886 after completing a thesis entitled Estudio histórico político de la Constitución de 1833. Then, he married Elena Ross de Ferari. They had three children.
Early in his professional career, Tocornal worked in the financial sector, serving as secretary of the Banco de Chile in 1887. He later became an attorney for the Chilean fiscal defence service in 1900. His private-sector activities included directorships in the Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego and a mining company operating in Tocopilla.
He died in Santiago on 15 July 1955, aged 90.
Political career
A member of the Conservative Party, Tocornal was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Melipilla and La Victoria in 1891. He was returned for a second term in 1894 and remained in Congress until 1897. During both legislative periods, his parliamentary work included the permanent committees concerned with finance and industry.
Following his parliamentary service, Tocornal entered the cabinet as Minister of Finance in 1897. Nearly two decades later, during the presidency of Juan Luis Sanfuentes, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Worship and Colonization in 1916.
Tocornal subsequently became involved in Chile's overseas economic and diplomatic representation. He participated in a commercial mission to the United States in 1919 and in another mission to Europe in 1923.
In 1927, he was appointed Chilean ambassador to Argentina. He later represented Chile in the United Kingdom, serving as ambassador from 1933 to 1935.