Jacques Chevallier (politician)

Jacques Chevallier
Mayor of Algiers
In office
1953–1958
Preceded byPierre-René Gazagne
Succeeded byOmar Mohamed Bouarouba
Personal details
Born(1911-11-15)15 November 1911
Bourdeaux, France
Died13 April 1971(1971-04-13) (aged 59)
Algiers, Algeria
Spouse
Renée Missé
(m. 1932)
Children7, including Corinne Chevallier
Alma materUniversity of Algiers

Jacques Chevallier (15 November 1911, in Bordeaux – 13 April 1971) was a liberal pied-noir mayor of Algiers[1][2] who governed the city at the head of a coalition of pied noir and Muslim representatives.

He was also the secretary of state for war in the government of Pierre Mendès France.

Chevallier was born on 15 November 1911 in Bordeaux. His father Etienne Chavellier was an industrialist who also had lands in Algeria; his mother was born Corinne de la Bédoyère Huchet de Kernion.[3] He studied at various Catholic colleges, including Notre Dame d’Afrique at Algiers, and at the University of Algiers where he obtained a degree in law. He married Renée Missé on 27 December 1932. They had five sons and two daughters, one of whom is the historian and novelist Corinne Chevallier.

After World War II, he helped Boris Souvarine to recreate the Institut d'histoire sociale (fr, institute for social history). He was the interim president of Institut d'Histoire Sociale from 1956 to 1957.[4]

On 16 May 1955, Chevallier secured the parole of eleven FLN detainees who had been arrested after the November 1954 attacks, including Benyoucef Benkhedda, the future president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.

After Algerian independence in 1962, Chevallier was one of the few pieds noirs who took Algerian citizenship and remained in the new state.[3]

Chevalier died of cancer in Algiers in 1971.[3] His funeral was celebrated at Notre Dame du Mont Carmel in El Biar in the presence of Léon-Étienne Duval, the Archbishop of Algiers.[3]

References

  1. ^ Robert F. Holland (1994). Emergencies and Disorder in the European Empires After 1945. ISBN 0-7146-4516-8.
  2. ^ Alice Cherki (2006). Frantz Fanon: A Portrait. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-7308-X.
  3. ^ a b c d Jacques Chevallier Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, on the website of the Association des Amis de Raoul Salan
  4. ^ La Souvarine - Institut d'Histoire sociale Archived 2008-03-09 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography

Jacques Chevallier, Nous, Algériens, Calmann-Lévy, 1958 - 187 pages (scanned version)