Gabriel Ranvier

Paris Commune (1871) Revolutionary socialism 1828–1879 ○ Natural causes

Blanquist of Belleville who proclaimed the Commune at the Hôtel de Ville

Born in Baugy in 1828, the son of a shoemaker, he became a decorative painter on faience; as a Blanquist he was active in the meetings of Belleville under the late Second Empire and was jailed. Freed when the Republic was proclaimed in September 1870, he became commander of the 141st National Guard battalion and joined Gustave Flourens in the rising of 31 October. While in prison he was elected mayor of the 20th arrondissement, but the government annulled the vote. Elected to the Commune for the 20th arrondissement on 26 March 1871, he proclaimed the Commune at the Hôtel de Ville on the 28th. He sat on the military commission, took part in the sortie towards Versailles on 3 April, and from 1 May sat on the Committee of Public Safety, fighting until the last day. He fled to London, was sentenced to death in absentia, and died unamnestied in Belleville in 1879.