Catroux was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne. He was the son of a career officer who had risen through the ranks. He was educated at the Prytanée National Militaire, and entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1896. In the early years of his distinguished military career, Catroux moved from Algeria to Indochina. In 1915, while commanding a battalion, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. During his time in captivity, Catroux met Charles de Gaulle, who was then a captain. After World War I, he became a member of the French military mission to Arabia, and then served in Morocco, Algeria and the Levant. In July 1939, Catroux was appointed Governor General of French Indochina, and in August 1939, one month before the declaration of war, took over from a senior civil servant, Jules Brévié. Paris wanted to send a strong signal to the Far Easton the eve of hostilities. However, after the first Japanese ultimatum of 17 June 1940, and following disagreements with the new Vichy government, Catroux was ordered to hand over his post to Admiral Jean Decoux on 25 June. He initially ignored the order, and only resigned on 20 July. He then chose to join de Gaulle, who was by now leader of the Free France movement.
As a five-star general, Catroux was the most senior officer of the French Army to transfer allegiance. De Gaulle appointed him High Commissioner to the Levant in 1941. He took control of Syria for the Free French after the defeat of Vichy General Henri Dentz and the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre. Shortly after taking up the post, Catroux, in the name of the Free French movement, recognised the independence of Syria. De Gaulle subsequently appointed him Governor General of Algeria in 1943-44. Officially honored as a French liberation fighter, Catroux was Minister for North Africa in the first government of Charles de Gaulle from 9 September 1944 to 21 October 1945, and became ambassador to the USSR in 1945-48. After the unrest in Morocco, Catroux negotiated the return of the sultan Mohammed V in 1955. As Resident Minister in Algeria for the government of Guy Mollet in 1956, he was unable to take up his post because of demonstrations in Algiers by French residents on 6 February. Catroux presided over a board of inquiry, the Catroux Commission, that investigated the French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. He was also the judge in the military tribunal which tried the generals involved in the Algiers putsch of 1961. He died in Paris in 1969.
