A Brief History of my Family in France - Part 8

in #story8 years ago (edited)

Hello everyone. This is the continuation of the story of my French family.

The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 7

Hydrographic Engineer

So, in 1945, Henri ceased to be a Navy Officer and began a new career of Hydrographic Engineer, with the rank of "Ingénieur Général de Deuxième Classe", that is the equivalent of a two star general. In 1948, he was promoted to the highest rank for hydrographic engineers, equivalent to three star general.


Ingenieur General

Soon, he was made the head of the "Service Hydrographique de la Marine", the Naval Hydrographic Service (SHM) that became the "Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine" (SHOM) in 1971, long after Henri's retirement.

As indicated in the WikiPedia article, the SHM provides "a public service in hydrography and maritime cartography, including the collection, elaboration, confirmation and spread of nautical information useful to civil or naval navigators and to all who sail for professional or pleasure, as well as those responsible for care of the coast". In particular, the SHM published and corrected nautical charts.

Nautical Chart; Island of Ouessant


Part of a French Nautical Chart

So, Henri's career started in Tahiti collecting hydrographic measurements for making nautical charts and ended as the director of the SHM that publishes those charts.
Henri stayed as the director of the SHM until 1955, when he was "reached by the age limit" as we say in the French military (as if you would stay put and the age limit would be moving!).

During his retirement years, Henri mostly took care of his wife, my grandmother Annick, who had Parkinson's disease.

Continue to Part 9


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Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
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Interesting. I didn't realize that one could rise to such a high rank with a technical speciality. I like the idea! I have spent significant time as a scientist in government and it is always aggravating how people with no experience in your discipline ( and not intending to pay their dues to get it) attempt to "manage" others often maintaining that they don't want to get 'in the weeds' (not bogged down by details).

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