1872 births

Francis Xavier Gsell, OBE (30 June 1872 – 12 July 1960) was a German-born Australian Roman Catholic bishop and missionary, known as the "Bishop with 150 wives". He was born at Benfeld, Alsace in 1872. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1896, after study in Rome.He began active missionary work in Papua in 1900, then in 1906 re-established the Catholic Church in Palmerston (now Darwin), Northern Territory. He established an Aboriginal mission on Bathurst Island in 1910 and worked there until 1938. The local Tiwi people called him Parrakijiyali. Though unsuccessful in converting adults, he persisted with children's education and "bought" many girls promised in marriage to older men according to tribal custom. He became known as the "Bishop with 150 wives" (also the title of his autobiography) for his activities in freeing girls from such arranged marriages, thus making it possible for them to marry men of their own age. He defended the policy against criticism by Communist leader Tom Wright, and argued that "the natives are a race committing suicide" who "cannot stand the clash with modern civilisation".Gsell was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1935, and was Bishop of Darwin from 1938 to 1949, during which time he was influential in founding Aboriginal missions at Port Keats and Arltunga.
In 1936, Gsell was involved with establishing the Tennant Creek Catholic Church, which was dismantled and moved from its previous location at Pine Creek.His collaboration with government promoted assimilation policies. As Bishop of Darwin he was in charge of the Catholic Church's share of the policy of child removals of children of mixed parentage now known as the Stolen Generations. He defended the practice, writing "if they had families, and if they were surrounded by that love and affection family life offers to the young even amongst primitive peoples, it might be cruel. But these creatures roam miserably around the camps and their behaviour is often worse than that of native children. It is an act of mercy to remove them as soon as possible from surroundings so insecure."He retired to the Sacred Heart Monastery in the Sydney suburb of Kensington and died in 1960.

Charles Prince Seigneur (27 April 1872 – 18 July 1933) was a French-born film actor and comedian, best known for his screen persona "Rigadin" in numerous short slapstick comedies. He was also known as "Moritz" in Germany, "Whiffles" in England and the US, and "Tartufini" in Italy. He was the second biggest film star in the world in the years leading up to World War I, just behind his rival Max Linder. Prince's "Rigadin" character was similar to Linder's "Max" in that they were both upper-class dandies that were constantly getting into trouble with authority figures and love interests. Prince began his acting career on the stage and was hired by Pathé Frères in 1908. He made over 200 films as "Rigadin" from 1909 until 1920. By 1920 his popularity had faded and he played supporting roles in a handful of films in the 1920s and 1930s. Two of his Rigadin shorts, Rigadin Directeur de Cinéma and Rigadin et le Chien de la Baronne, were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2010.

Maurice Edmond Sailland (October 12, 1872, in Angers, France – July 22, 1956, in Paris), better known by his pen-name Curnonsky (nicknamed 'Cur'), and dubbed the Prince of Gastronomy, was one of the most celebrated writers on gastronomy in France in the 20th century. He wrote or ghost-wrote many books in diverse genres and many newspaper columns. He is often considered the inventor of gastronomic motor-tourism as popularized by Michelin, though he himself could not drive. He was a student of Henri-Paul Pellaprat.

André Rivoire (5 May 1872 – 19 August 1930) was a French poet and playwright whose work was defined by the delicate precision of his observation.

María Enriqueta Camarillo (also known as María Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa de Pereyra) (1872–1968) was a Mexican poet-novelist, short story writer and translator. She was widely recognized for her works, with schools and libraries named after her, as well as a bust by Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure erected in Hidalgo Park in Mexico City in her honor. She received the 1923 literary prize from the Académie française for her novel El Secreto. She was awarded a collaborative partnership in 1927 with the Real Academia Hispano-Americana de Ciencias y Artes of Cádiz for her textbook Rosas de la Infancia. For the same work, she also received the prize for best children's literature from the Literary Salon of the Universal Exposition in Seville, Spain. Camarillo was granted the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 1947 and in 1948 received the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.

Marcel Renault (14 May 1872 – 26 May 1903) was a French racing driver and industrialist, co-founder of the carmaker Renault. He was the brother of Louis and Fernand Renault.
Marcel Renault, Louis Renault, and Fernand Renault co-founded Renault Frères based on a automobile prototype built by Louis. The brothers took orders to construct new automobiles as early as 1899.Renault was born in Paris; he and his brothers jointly founded the Renault company on 25 February 1899. He and Louis raced the cars it built starting the next year. He died in Payré, at the age of 31, of severe injuries he sustained during the Paris-Madrid race.
After his death, a statue was built in Renault's memory which later would be destroyed by the German attacks during World War II.

Bernard Ogilvie Dodge (18 April 1872 – 9 August 1960) was an American botanist and pioneer researcher on heredity in fungi. Dodge was the author of over 150 papers dealing with the life histories, cytology, morphology, pathology and genetics of fungi, and with insects and other animal pests of plants. He made the first studies of sexual reproduction in the common bread mold, Neurospora.Dodge's work on the genetics of Neurospora laid the groundwork for the discoveries that earned George Wells Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum the Nobel Prize in 1958.

Gaëtan Henri Alfred Edouard Léon Marie Gatian de Clérambault (2 July 1872 – 17 November 1934) was a French psychiatrist.
Apart from his psychiatric studies, he was an acclaimed painter and wrote on the costumes of various native tribes. He was also a professional photographer; from 1914 to 1918 he took around 30,000 photographs. Some of the photos were taken as part of a research project involving symptoms of hysteria. Many of his photos were later placed in the Musée de l'Homme.

Félix Mayol (18 November 1872 – 26 October 1941) was a French singer and entertainer.

Bonaventura Cerretti (17 June 1872 – 8 May 1933) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura from 1931 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1925.