Louis Sansoni

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}

{{EngvarB|date=November 2020}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix =

|name = Louis Sansoni

|honorific-suffix =

|image =

|imagesize =

|smallimage =

|caption =

|birth_name = Louis Guiseppi Sansoni

|birth_date = c.1775

|birth_place =

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1831|02|10|1775|||df=y}}

|death_place = Galle, Ceylon

|body_discovered =

|death_cause =

|resting_place = Dutch Church, Galle fort

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|residence =

|nationality = Italian

|education =

|alma_mater =

|occupation = public servant

|home_town =

|order =

|office = Postmaster General of Ceylon

|term = 1816 - 1825

|predecessor = Egbert Bletterman

|successor = George William Stewart

|spouse = Lydia née Twynam m.1828

|partner =

|children = Joseph

|parents = Guiseppi (Joseph) Sansoni

|relations =

|signature =

|website =

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}}

Louis Sansoni (c.1775 - 10 February 1831) served as the second Postmaster General of Ceylon, between 1816 and 1825.{{cite book|title=The Ceylon Manual, for the Use of Officials: Comprising Historical, Statistical, and Other Information Concerning the Island and Its Administration, for 1912-1913|editor=Sueter, Edward Beaumont Fraser|publisher=A. M. & J. Ferguson|date=1913|page=125}}{{cite book|title=Ferguson's Ceylon Directory for 1944|publisher=Ceylon Observer Press|date=1944|place=Colombo|page=134}}

Louis Guiseppi Sansoni was born c.1775, the second son of Guiseppi (Joseph) Sansoni, the Italian commander of the trading ship Livorna (named after the Italian city of Livorno).{{cite book|title=Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe|author=Orizio, Riccardo|publisher=Simon and Schuster|date=2001|page=30|isbn=9780743211970}} Guiseppi was employed by the Dutch East India Company and the ship voyaged between Europe and India/Ceylon in the 1630s to 1830s.{{cite book|title=The Free Port of Livorno and the Transformation of the Mediterranean World, 1574-1790|author=Tazzara, Corey|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2017|isbn=9780198791584|pages=60–61}} Sansoni's older brother, Joseph (1770-1800), was the garrison surgeon at Galle.{{cite journal|url=https://thedutchburgherunion.org/genealogy/ancestry-s/JDBU%201959%20Vol%2049%20No%201-2%20p35%20-%20Sansoni%20Ancestry%281%29.pdf|title=The Journal of the Dutch Burger Union|journal=Genealogy of the Family of Sansoni of Ceylon|author=Altendorff, D. V.|volume=49|date=1955|page=35}} Sansoni's name was often incorrectly anglicised as Lewis.{{cite news|url=http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2013/10/06/fea09.asp|title=Modern technology for post offices - Networking of post offices already begun|first=Naalir|last=Jamaldeen|newspaper=The Sunday Observer|date=6 October 2013|access-date=26 November 2020}}

File:Lewis Sansoni GPO Mail Advice Colombo 1820.jpg

He served as the Custom master in Jaffna between 1813 and 1815.{{cite book|title=List of inscriptions on tombstones and monuments in Ceylon, of historical or local interest, with an obituary of persons uncommemorated|author=Lewis, John Penry|publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company|date=1913|page=183}} He was appointed as deputy Postmaster General on 1 September 1816 and took over the role as Postmaster General on 1 October 1816, following the retirement of Egbert Bletterman. A position he remained in until 1825, when he was appointed Collector of Revenue and Customs for Galle and Matara, a position he served as until his death in 1831.{{cite journal|title=The Ceylon Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1830|publisher=Nicholas Bergman|date=1830|page=126}} He was also the private secretary to two Pusine Justices, Sir W. Corke and H. Byrne, between 1816 and 1820.{{cite journal|title=Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons|volume=4|publisher=House of Commons|date=1820|page=89}} During his tenure as Postmater General he was responsible for establishing the Kandy General Post Office and the Galle Fort Post Office in 1820.

Sansoni's first marriage is unrecorded but he had one son, Joseph, (1800-1857), who in 1824 married Maria Elisabeth Atkinson (1805-1880), the daughter of George Atkinson, the second Surveyor General, in Colombo. Joseph had a second marriage in 1832 to Sara Henrietta Staats (1814-1864).

Sansoni married Lydia Twynam (1810-1892), sister of Captain Thomas Holloway Twynam (1794-1869), Master Attendant of Trincomalee and Point-de-Galle, on 26 February 1828, at the Episcopal Church, Galle.{{cite journal|title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia|volume=26|publisher=Parbury, Allen, and Company|date=1828|page=752}} They had no children. He died on 10 February 1831{{cite journal|title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia|volume=6|publisher=Parbury, Allen, and Company|date=1831|page=23}} and was buried at the Dutch Church in Galle.{{cite book|title=Ceylon in early British times|author=Lewis, John Penry|publisher=Times of Ceylon Company, Limited|date=1916|page=44}} His wife Lydia returned to England by the ship Symmetry, and in 1834 married Thomas Swindale Harvey of the firm of Hancock and Harvey, tea merchants.