Henri de Gaulle


Henri de Gaulle was a French civil servant and later a schoolteacher. He was the father of Charles de Gaulle, a general of the French army and President of France.

Biography

Early life

Henri de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1848 in Paris. His father, Julien Philippe de Gaulle, was an historian. His mother was Joséphine Marie Anne de Gaulle.

Career

He volunteered in the Franco-Prussian War; his men chose him as their second lieutenant on several occasions.
A civil servant in the interior ministry for fifteen years, in 1884 he resigned his post to protest against the anti-clerical policies of the Third Republic.
A "monarchist in feeling and a republican in thought", as he liked to call himself, Henri de Gaulle began working at a Jesuit high school in Paris, teaching French, Latin and Ancient Greek. Among his students were his four sons, as well as Georges Bernanos and the future marshals Philippe Leclerc and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. He was nicknamed PDG, but was respected and esteemed for the quality of his teaching.

Personal life

On August 2, 1886, he married his second cousin, Jeanne Maillot, with whom he had a daughter and four sons:
He retired with his wife to Sainte-Adresse, close to Le Havre, at the home of their daughter Marie-Agnès Cailliau. There, he helped his son Charles de Gaulle refine his first military books.

Death

He died at Sainte-Adresse, on 3 May 1932, and is buried there with his wife.