Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves

Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves (3 June 1901 – 29 August 1941) was a French Navy officer, reputed "first martyr of Free France" and one of the major heroes of the French Resistance.

He was born in Verrières-le-Buisson (now in the Essonne department). Educated in a conservative Catholic family, he was a remote cousin of writers Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Louise de Vilmorin, later companion of André Malraux. Estienne d'Orves spent the First World War as a high school student at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague in Paris, and entered the École Polytechnique in 1921. He joined the École Navale, (French Naval Academy), two years later, becoming an enseigne de vaisseau de 2e classe in October 1923 and joining the school ship Jeanne d'Arc. He was then an officer on the battleship Provence, and several other vessels. In 1929, he married Éliane de Lorgeril, with whom he had five children.

In 1930, he was promoted to lieutenant de vaisseau, and was made a chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1935. In December 1936, he joined the Naval War School for one year. When World War II broke out in 1939, he was serving aboard the Jaguar, as under-chief of the headquarters of the 2nd flotilla of torpedo boats in Mediterranean Sea. In December 1939, he was an aide to Admiral Godfroy in the Headquarters of the "Force X" aboard cruiser Duquesne

...
Wikipedia