- Léonel de Moustier
Marquis Léonel de Moustier (
5 April 1882 –10 May 1945 ) was a French businessman and politician.Léonel Marie Ghislain Alfred de Moustier, son of Marquis
Pierre de Moustier , was born inParis . His father representedDoubs in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. His grandfather was a diplomat under theSecond Empire , and his great-grandfather was a member of the Chamber of Peers.De Moustier served in the
French Army during theFirst World War and received the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 and theLégion d'Honneur . He was mayor ofCubry as his father had been before him and in 1928 again followed his father, this time to represent Doubs in the Chamber of Deputies, sitting with theRepublican Federation . While principally interested in economic and social affairs, he was later an opponent of anyappeasement ofNazi Germany and called for increased military preparedness.On the outbreak of the
Second World War , he returned to service with the French Army, then aged 57. After the signing of the armistice with Germany in June 1940, he was one of the 80 who voted against the grant of special powers toPhilippe Pétain and the creation of the Vichy régime. Moustier described the armistice as treason and Pétain as a traitor and was associated with theFrench Resistance . He was a district leader in theOrganisation de Résistance de l'Armée , and provided assistance to theUnited Kingdom 'sSecret Intelligence Service .He was arrested by the
Gestapo on23 August 1943 and imprisoned first atBesançon and then atCompiègne , and was deported toNeuengamme concentration camp in the summer of 1944. He died there shortly before the camp was liberated. He was posthumously made a member of theOrdre de la Libération .His son
Roland de Moustier (1909–2001) was also a politician.References
* [http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/biographies/IVRepublique/badie-vincent-henri-16071902.asp Biography] at the website of the National Assembly
* [http://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr_compagnon/709.html Biography] at the website of the Ordre de la Libération
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