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CAMILLO CANDIANI DI OLIVOLA

Rear Admiral and Vice-Admiral, Camillo Candiani was also naval attaché to the Italian embassy in London (from August, 1886-8 to 1889), Director of the Arsenal of La Spezia (April 21st, 1895 - January 23rd, 1898) and Member of the Italian Geographic Society (1868).​

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Between 1872 and 1874 he was Admiral aboard the frigate ‘Garibaldi’ on the occasion of the cruise circumnavigating the globe as aide-de-camp to his royal Highness the Duke of Genoa, Thomas of Savoy.

 

The voyage lasted 708 days, beginning November 16th, 1872 and ending October 22nd, 1874. The ship called at many ports: Naples, Gibraltar, Rio di Janeiro, Melbourne, the Fiji Islands, Yokohama, Honolulu, San Francisco, Acapulco, San José de Guatamala, Amapala Punta Arena di Costa Rica, Valparaiso, Montevideo, Tangier and finally, La Spezia.

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Camillo Candiani became famous in 1900, after he commanded the troops that put down the "Boxer Rebellion" in China.
The Boxer Rebellion was a movement against the spread of Western and Japanese influence between 1899 and 1901. The Boxers, mostly humble farmers, were known for their boxing and callisthenic rituals. The Empress imposed restrictions on foreigners the following countries: Russia, England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, the United States and Japan, retaliated.


In 1900, Camillo Candiani was tasked as Vice-Admiral to lead the expedition of more than 2000 soldiers to help contain the rebellion. The flotilla comprised the cruisers Ettore Fieramosca, Vesuvius, Stromboli, Colombo and the corvette Vettor Pisani.


Their Monferrato admiral was entrusted with the supreme naval command on land.Thanks to this victory, Italy obtained an extraterritorial concession, a jumping off point for its own commercial interests.


Upon returning to Italy, Candiani was greeted with great honours and was nominated senator in November 1901.
The Count was a member of the finance commission, and then of the commission for evaluating the laws of the Military Penal Code, the Code of Procedures of the Military Penal Code and Judicial Military Law. 

 

He was also commissioner of the supervisory committee of the fund for emigration.
As he died without heirs, his title passed to the descendants of his sister Adelaide Riccardi, thus authorising them to call themselves Riccardi-Candiani, beginning with her son, Guido Riccardi-Candiani. Along with the property in Neive.

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