Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère

Augustin Manuel Hubert Gaston Boué de Lapeyrère (18 Jan 1852-17 Feb 1924) was a French admiral during World War I. He was a strong proponent of naval reform, and is comparable to Admiral Jackie Fisher of the British Royal Navy.

Lapeyrere was born in Castéra-Lectourois commune into a family of sailors: his uncle was vice-admiral Augustin Dupouy, who becomes his mentor following the death of his father. He entered the École Navale in 1860. He took part in the Tonkin campaign during the Sino-French war and showed himself to be a leader of men and tactician, especially at the Battle of Fuzhou. Made Rear-admiral in 1902, he became commander-in-chief of the Atlantic naval division from 1904 to 1906, where had as aide-de-camp Pierre Loti. He was promoted vice-admiral in 1908, commanding the Baltic division, then maritime prefect for Brest (préfet maritime).

Lapeyrere served as Minister of Marine, a political position, from 24 July 1909 until 1 March 1911 in the governments of Aristide Briand. While in this position he championed the production of large capital ships, deferring the production of submarines and Anti-submarine warships in favor of larger vessels. He reorganized the service and constructed many ships, in particular courbet class dreadnoughts. He launched the naval air service.

Upon retiring from the office of Minister of Marine, Lapeyrere was appointed Commander-in-Chief of France's Mediterranean forces in anticipation of sea battles in the Mediterranean between the allies and the navies of Italy and Austria-Hungary and was made commander in chief of the allied Mediterranean navies. However, these large battles did not materialize, and fighting in the Mediterranean remained limited to raids by submarines and light craft of the Austro-Hungarian navy. (Italy remaining neutral until joining the allies in 1915, and hence posing no threat to France.) Lapeyrere thus found his main duty as commander-in-chief to be policing the sea lanes to protect allied shipping. He was criticised at the start of the war in August 1914 for his part in the escape of the German ships Goeben and Breslau from the Mediterranean to form a Turkish navy in the Black Sea.

Despite his notable successes, the affair of the armoured cruiser Léon-Gambetta, torpedoed by a German submarine, caused his resignation on 10 October, 1915 without any public explanation. He was replaced by admiral Gauchet. Placed in the reserve in 1916, he retired to Pau. He was granted the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in April 1921. Lapeyrere lived until 1924, when he died at the age of 72. His body was transferred to Les Invalides in 1931.

External links

* [http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/delapeyrere.htm biography of Augustin Boue de Lapeyrere on FirstWorldWar.com]
* [http://www.military-photos.com/boue.htm biography in French from military-photos.com]