Franchet DEsperey, Louis Félix Marie François

Born May 25, 1856, in Mostaganem, Algeria; died July 8, 1942, in the Château d’Amancet, Tarn Department. Marshal of France (1921). Member of the Académie Française (1934).

Franchet d’Esperey graduated from the St. Cyr military school in 1876. He fought in colonial wars in Indochina in 1885 and 1886 and in Morocco in 1912 and took part in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. In the first year of World War I, Franchet d’Esperey was given command of the Fifth Army. In 1916 and 1917 he commanded first the Army Group of the East and then the Army Group of the North. In 1918 he assumed command of the troops on the Salonika front. He commanded the French occupation forces in southern Russia in March and April 1919. Franchet d’Esperey wrote several works on the history of the French Army and Navy.