Henry Willard Denison (1846 - 1914)
Born at Guildhall (VT); died at Tokyo, Japan.
Lawyer and international diplomat.
Portrait by Leslie P. Thompson, 1937; after an earlier photograph.
Presented to the State of New Hampshire, 1937.

Henry Willard Denison was born at Guildhall (VT) but grew up at Lancaster (NH). Following school Denison worked for the Coos Republican newspaper, then became a clerk in the Customs Department at Washington, D.C. While at Customs, Denison studied law at George Washington University, and upon receiving his degree he was sent as a vice consul to the American consulate at Yokohama, Japan (c. 1870). Some time later the Japanese government appointed Denison legal advisor to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Denison served in this position for thirty-three years (1880 - 1913). He drafted the Japanese government's positions following the First Chino-Japanese War (1894/5), fought over the Korean peninsula, and he helped conclude a treaty of friendship and alliance with Great Britain several years later. This latter treaty of alliance was useful in the development of treaty positions following the Russo-Japanese War (1903/05); and Denison accompanied Japanese Ambassador Baron Komura to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the signing of the treaty in Summer 1905. At Portsmouth the treaty went through revisions; Denison was responsible for the Japanese positions during these negotiations. He also represented Japan at The International Court of Arbitration, at The Hague. For his services to the Japanese government, Henry Willard Denison was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun, the first time this Japanese decoration had been given to a foreigner.

References: Columbia Encyclopedia (1950); Secretary of State Papers (Miscellaneous, Box 716022, NH State Archives). Also Rev. A. N. Somers, History of Lancaster (1899).