Tax-refusal campaigner of "Gambon's cow" fame and member of the second Committee of Public Safety
Born in Bourges in 1820, he became a lawyer at nineteen and a substitute judge, but was suspended in 1847 for his anti-royalist views. Elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848, he sat with the Mountain and opposed the repression of the June Days; over the affair of 13 June 1849 he was sentenced to ten years' deportation, served at Belle-Île. In 1869 he campaigned to refuse taxes that would pay for the army that had shot down striking workers, and his seized cow became famous through the song La vache à Gambon. Elected to the Commune by the 10th arrondissement on 26 March 1871, he gave up his seat in the National Assembly, and on 9 May he joined the Committee of Public Safety. In Swiss exile he joined the International and the Jura Federation, and he was sentenced to death in absentia. After the 1880 amnesty he was Radical deputy for the Nièvre from 1882 to 1885.
Also known as: Charles Ferdinand Gambon
Activities and affiliations
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1848–1849
France state institutionsMember of the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies
Legislature and state representation -
1848–1849
The Mountain (Democratic Socialists, 1848–1851)
Government and administration -
1871
Paris Commune (1871)Commune member and member of the Committee of Public SafetyHeads of state and government of FranceMain
Government and administration -
1871–1880
International Workingmen's Association (First International)
Social movements and organizing -
1882–1885
France state institutionsDeputy for the Nièvre
Legislature and state representation
Career Timeline
- 1848.04.23–1849.05.26Member of the Constituent Assembly (the Mountain)
- 1849.05.13–07.01Member of the Legislative Assembly
- 1871.02.08–03.26Member of the National Assembly
- 1871.03.26–05.28Member of the Paris Commune council (10th arrondissement)
- 1871.05.09–28Member of the Committee of Public Safety of the Paris Commune
- 1882.06.26–1885.11.09Deputy for the Nièvre