Jacques Le Roy Ladurie
| Jacques Jules Marie Joseph Le Roy Ladurie | |
|---|---|
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| Minister of Agriculture | |
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In office 17 April 1942 – 11 September 1942 |
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| Preceded by | Pierre Caziot |
| Succeeded by | Max Bonnafous |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 March 1902 Saint-Mihiel, Meuse, France |
| Died | 6 June 1988 (aged 86) Caen, Calvados, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Agriculturalist |
Jacques Jules Marie Joseph Le Roy Ladurie (28 March 1902 – 6 June 1988) was a French agriculturalist and politician. He played a leading role in agricultural syndicates in the 1920s and 1930s. During World War II (1939–45) he was Minister of Agriculture in Vichy France for several months in 1942. He later participated in the French Resistance. After the war he was a deputy for the Calvados from 1951 to 1955, and again from 1958 to 1962.
Jacques Jules Marie Joseph Le Roy Ladurie was born on 28 March 1902 in Saint-Mihiel, Meuse. His father, Captain Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, was stationed there with the 25th battalion of chasseurs. In the summer of that year his father was dismissed from the army for refusing to execute the government's decrees directed against religious congregations, and retired to farm his family's land in Normandy. When aged 17 and about to graduate from secondary school Jacques Le Roy Ladurie became seriously ill and was bed-ridden for several months. His doctors told him he must live an outdoor life, so after his recovery he joined the school of agriculture in Angers. He graduated in 1924.
In 1925 Le Roy Ladurie settled in an 18th-century château surrounded by a farm of 140 hectares (350 acres) owned by his maternal family at Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais. The property was located on the edge of the Caen plain and the Norman bocage, and was mostly used for wheat and cattle. It was worked by hired hands, and he had free time, particularly in winter. Soon after, he married the daughter of Viscount Dauger. Léontine Dauger was from a Catholic and royalist background. They had four children, including the future historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, who was born on 19 July 1929. His brother, Gabriel Le Roy Ladurie, became a senior officer of the Banque Worms.
Le Roy Ladurie soon became known as an authority on "modern" agriculture. He was noticed by Henri Chéron, a former Minister of Agriculture, and at the age of 23 was made secretary of the Calvados agricultural syndicate. He was active and innovative, and changed the organization into a union of syndicates along a model proven in Lyon. He combined the services of a syndicate, a cooperative and the credit union in a "Maison de Paysan" (Peasant House). By 1931 the Calvados Union had 8,600 members in 211 municipal unions. In 1929 Le Roy Ladurie was elected to the municipal council of Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais, and was chosen as mayor. He held this position until 1983, with only a short interruption in 1945–47.
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