Joseph Gallieni
| Joseph Gallieni | |
|---|---|
Joseph Simon Gallieni
|
|
| Born | 24 April 1849 Saint-Béat, France |
| Died | 27 May 1916 (aged 67) Versailles, France |
| Allegiance |
 French Third Republic
|
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1868-1916 |
| Rank | Général de division |
| Battles/wars |
Franco-Prussian War World War I |
| Awards |
Marshal of France (posthumous) Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur |
Joseph Simon Gallieni (24 April 1849 – 27 May 1916) was a French soldier, active for most of his career as a military commander and administrator in the French colonies. Gallieni is infamous in Madagascar as the French military leader who exiled Queen Ranavalona III and abolished the 350-year-old monarchy on the island.
He was recalled from retirement at the outbreak of the First World War. As Military Governor of Paris he played an important role in the First Battle of the Marne, when Maunoury's Sixth Army under his command, a small portion of its strength rushed to the front in commandeered Paris taxicabs, attacked the German west flank.
From October 1915 he served as Minister of War, resigning from that post in March 1916 after criticizing the performance of the French Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Joffre (formerly his subordinate, earlier in their careers), during the German attack on Verdun. He was made Marshal of France posthumously in 1921.
Gallieni was born in 1849 at Saint-Beat, in the department of Haute-Garonne, in the central Pyrenees. He was of Corsican and Italian descent. His father, born in Pogliano Milanese, had risen from the ranks to be a captain.
He was educated at the Prytanée Militaire in La Flèche, and then the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment before serving in the Franco-Prussian War.
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Wikipedia