Henri Charles Sellier | |
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Sellier in 1936
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Minister of Health | |
In office 4 June 1936 – 21 June 1937 |
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Preceded by | Louis Nicolle |
Succeeded by | Marc Rucart |
Personal details | |
Born |
Bourges, Cher, France |
22 December 1883
Died | 24 November 1943 Suresnes, Seine. France |
(aged 59)
Nationality | French |
Occupation | Administrator |
Henri Charles Sellier (22 December 1883 – 24 November 1943) was a French administrator, urban planner and Socialist politician. He did much to develop garden cities in the Paris region. He was Minister of Health in 1936–37.
Henri Charles Sellier was born on 22 December 1883 in Bourges, Cher. His father was a skilled metalworker who became a foreman in the cannon foundry of the Bourges arsenal. His mother, who came from a prosperous farming family, ran a small watch and jewelry shop. Sellier won a scholarship to the lycée in Bourges. He was a brilliant pupil, and won a state scholarship to study at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) business school, where he gained a diploma in 1901. In the summer of 1902 the HEC sent Sellier to work in the Siemens plant in Hamburg as secretary to Walther Rathenau, where he first met Albert Thomas.
Sellier was influenced by the socialists Édouard Vaillant and Jules-Louis Breton. He joined the Blanquist Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party in 1898. Due to his left-wing political views he had difficulty finding a permanent job. From 1902 to 1906 he worked in various financial and commercial enterprises while studying in his spare time. In 1906 he graduated with a degree in Law from the Faculty of Paris. That year he joined the Ministry of Labor as a rédacteur, and in a few years became a bureau chief. In 1907 Sellier married Jessa Guitton, a seamstress and then shop worker. They had two children, a boy and a girl.
Sellier remained an active socialist and collaborated with Jean Jaurès and Albert Thomas. He voted with the majority to join the Communist Third International at the Tours Congress in November 1920, but in October 1921 was expelled from the French Communist Party and joined the Socialist French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). He remained a member of the SFIO for the rest of his life.