A Brief History of my Family in France - Part 6
Hello everyone. This is the continuation of the story of my French family.
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 5
Navy Officer in France
After the end of World War I, in November or December 1918, Henri returned to Brest in Brittany where he was posted on a ship.
I am not sure he he was already in Brest when the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, arrived to take part in World War I peace negotiations and to promote his plan for a League of Nations.
President Wilson arrived in Brest on December 13th 1918 on USS Georges Washington.
Henri, as soon as he arrived in Brest, decided that it was time to get married.
To meet girls, he bought a tennis racket and went to the tennis club.
He told me many years ago, that he did not play tennis very often.
However, this is where he met his future wife, my grandmother, Annick, who were also from Brittany.
Annick was the daughter of his commanding officer, and Henri told me that I should never do that, because it makes professional relationships very weird.
As Henri suffered to be an only child during his childhood, the young couple decided to have many children.
They had ten. My mother was the third.
I only met seven of the ten, because three of my mother brothers died during World War II, one during the fights, one in a prisoner camp, and one from tuberculosis.
Between 1918 and 1939, Henri was posted on several ships, but always in Brest, never in the other main French military port, Toulon.
He was also posted at the École Navale, as the professor of navigation.
At some point, he was also posted as the commanding officer of the "École des Pilotes de la Flotte", in Saint-Servan, near Saint-Malo. The "pilotte de la flotte" were petty officers that had to learn how to navigate on all the French coast and to enter and depart from all the French ports.
Their school was in the old arsenal in Saint-Servan from 1867 to 1965.
Recent View of the Old Arsenal of Saint-Servan
Henri had been very much appreciated by the "pilottes de la flotte", and at his funeral several of the old pilots came in delegation.
At the end of the summer of 1933, Henri was posted at the Navy headquarters in Paris.
He rented a house in the city of Le Chesnay, near Versailles, big enough for his big family.
Henri took several days of leave for the moving.
On Monday September 4th, Henri reported for duty in his ordinary uniform.
He was surprised when he arrived to see many officers in uniform of parade.
When he asked what was going on, he was told:
- The Minister of the Navy, Georges Leygues, has died on September 2nd. You are on duty this afternoon at the honor guard around the Minister's coffin.
Georges Leygues
Henri had to rush back home to get his parade uniform and returned just in time.
The Navy greatly appreciated Georges Leygues, and two ships were given the name "Georges Leygues": a cruiser in 1936 and a frigate in 1978. I was part of the first crew of the frigate.
Starting in 1933, Henri and his family stayed in the Paris region, while he was posted at the Navy headquarters.
Things changed when World War II started in 1939.
Continue to Part 7
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