Émile Coornaert

Émile Coornaert (31 August 1886, Hondschoote, Nord – 25 February 1980) was a French historian, journalist and French Resistance worker.

Léon-Joseph-Émile Coornaert was born on 31 August 1886, in Hondschoote, Nord, France. He was the thirteenth and last child of a family of farm workers. After the death of his father in 1898, he entered the Petit Séminaire Saint-François d'Assise in Hazebrouck, which he left in 1903. Profoundly influenced by the education he received, he returned to the school very regularly throughout his life. After graduation, he split his time between his studies and his work. He was a member of Le Sillon, a political and religious movement started by Marc Sangier.

After earning his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1906, he pursued studies in history in Lille (at the Institut catholique de Lille) and then at Sorbonne where he obtained a graduate degree in medieval history. Although exempted from military service, he enlisted in 1915. He first fought in the 1st Infantry Regiment, then joined 8th Engineer Regiment until the end of the First World War. He was a Sergeant Engineer who worked in the intelligence section, a role which utilized his knowledge of German.

He married Alice Robert in 1921 and traveled regularly until the end of his life to his family home in Allarmont, Vosges. The couple had three children.

Émile Coornaert died in Paris on 25 February 1980. He is buried at Allarmont. His wife Alice died in 1991 at the age of 94.

Released from the army in 1919, Émile Coornaert passed the History teacher's examination (known in France as "l'agrégation d'histoire") and worked in Alençon, Nancy, and at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. He received his PhD in 1930, and was named Director of Economic Historical Studies at the École pratique des hautes études where Marc Bloch took a liking to him. He started collaboration with Bloch and the Annales in 1932.

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