Camille Pelletan

Charles Camille Pelletan (28 June 1846 – 4 June 1915) was a French politician and journalist, Minister of Marine in Emile Combes' Bloc des gauches (Left-Wing Blocks) cabinet from 1902 to 1905. He was part of the left-wing of the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, created in 1902.

Pelletan was born in Paris, the son of Eugène Pelletan (1813-1884), a writer of some distinction and a noted opponent of the Second Empire.

Camille Pelletan was educated in Paris, passed as licentiate in laws, and studied at the École Nationale des Chartes where he was qualified as an "archiviste paléographe". At the age of twenty he became an active journalist, and a bitter critic of the Imperial Government. After the war of 1870-71 he took a leading place among the Radicals, as an opponent of the "Opportunist Republicans" who continued the policy of Léon Gambetta. In 1880 he became editor of Justice, and worked with success to bring about a revision of the sentences passed on the Communards. In 1881 he was elected a deputy for the 10th arrondissement of Paris, and in 1885 for the Bouches-du-Rhône département, being reelected in 1889, 1893 and 1898; and he was repeatedly chosen as reporter to the various bureaus.