Background
Léon Marcel Geoffray Isidore was born in Passy on 1st October 1852 to Pierre-Joseph Geoffray (1804-1886), and Juliette (called Julie) Wild Josephine de Louisiana Martinière.
Léon Marcel Geoffray Isidore was born in Passy on 1st October 1852 to Pierre-Joseph Geoffray (1804-1886), and Juliette (called Julie) Wild Josephine de Louisiana Martinière.
Leon Geoffray studied law, before entering the diplomatic service.
He was at first attached to the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1877, then to the embassy in Constantinople from 1877 to 1879, and back to the legal department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1879). He rose through the ranks: senior clerk (1883). Editor (1886); Secretary of the Embassy (1891).
Geoffray was appointed Senior Advisor to the embassy in London in 1895, with the rank of first class secretary, and minister plenipotentiary in 1896.
He was in London during the 1898 Fashoda incident to observe British opinion. Partly through Geoffray"s preparatory work, the Entente Cordiale was signed in 1904.
He continued to work on maintaining Anglo-French relations up to his departure from London in 1908. Geoffray was Consul General in Cairo from 1908 to 1910, and in July 1910 Ambassador of France to Madrid, remaining in Spain until dismissed in October 1917.
Leon Geoffray died in Paris on 25 December 1927.
He was the owner of the castle of Vaulx (17th century) in Saint-Julien-de-Civry, Saône-et-Loire, and instructed the landscaper Achille Duchêne to develop the park in 1900.