1890–1944
✕ Shot dead by German SD agents
Action Française dissident who built the Cagoule, a secret armed organisation meant to overthrow the parliamentary republic
On the night of 15 November 1937 he mobilised the Cagoule's men in Paris, claiming a Communist seizure of power was imminent. The officers sent to verify the supposed uprising saw through the bluff and stayed out; he called the operation off, and at 5 a.m. the groups were told to disperse.
Born in Brest, he graduated from the École Polytechnique, became a naval engineer and fought in the First World War as an artillery officer. Active in the Camelots du Roi of Action Française, he left in 1935, accusing its leaders of inaction, and after the leagues were dissolved in June 1936 led the secret armed organisation known as the CSAR and nicknamed La Cagoule by the press. The Cagoule murdered the exiled Italian antifascists Carlo and Nello Rosselli, set off the Étoile bombings of September 1937 so that the Communists would be blamed, and was broken up after its coup attempt of November 1937 collapsed. Under the Occupation he founded the collaborationist Social Revolutionary Movement (MSR); in January 1944 he was shot dead at his Paris home by agents of the German SD.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1890Born in Brest
- 1914–1918Artillery officer in the First World War, wounded on the Champagne front
- 1935Leaves Action Française to build his own organisation
- 1936.06–1937.11Leads the Secret Committee of Revolutionary Action (La Cagoule)
- 1937.11Coup attempt collapses; the organisation is uncovered
- 1940–1942.05Founds and leads the Social Revolutionary Movement (MSR); expelled in May 1942
- 1941.02–10Member of the first directing committee of the National Popular Rally
- 1943.08Arrested by the Germans and held for a month
- 1944.01Shot dead at his Paris home by German SD agents