The Frenchman Alexandre Théophile PIRY (1851-1918) followed his brother, Pierre Piry, in joining the Imperial Maritime Customs Service (IMCS) in 1874. He was a protégé of Sir Robert Hart, serving in various capacities in the IMCS. By 1896, he was appointed Commissioner of Customs at Lappa, returning to Beijing in 1900 as Chinese Secretary. In 1901 Piry was appointed Postal Secretary and went on to become the first Postmaster General of the Imperial Chinese Post Office in May 1911, a position he held until his retirement in 1917. Piry was a productive and ‘keen’ amateur photographer. He shared the photographs below, taken with his new Kodak kit, with fellow amateur J.C. Oswald (who was known as ‘Mr Camera’). See the Piry Collection MS19, at Queen’s University Belfast.