Anatole de LA FORGE
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Journalist and politician, defender of Saint-Quentin.
Anatole de La Forge, a republican journalist born in 1820, pleaded in his articles for oppressed Poland and Italy. In October 1870, as administrator of the Aisne, this fifty-year-old civilian held Saint-Quentin with a handful of francs-tireurs and national guardsmen, and drove back the Prussians. Wounded and decorated, he became a deputy and defended the Polish cause until his death, in 1892.
The story
A republican journalist under the Second Empire, Anatole de La Forge wrote in Le Siècle and campaigned for the oppressed nationalities, Poland and Italy above all. He had never carried arms.
In October 1870 he was administrator of the department of the Aisne when the Prussian troops came up before Saint-Quentin. With a few hundred national guards and francs-tireurs, this fifty-year-old civilian refused to give up the town and beat off the attack of 8 October.
Wounded and decorated, he became one of the figures of the national defence. Elected deputy for the Seine and then for the Aisne, he sat on the left under the Third Republic and defended the Polish cause until his death, having become one of its chief voices in Paris.
He died in 1892. A street in Paris and a square in Saint-Quentin carry his name. He lies in Division 66.
On site, do not miss
Two men who carried the same cause lie side by side: Anatole de La Forge and Charles Floquet, both defenders of Poland, rest in the same Division.
Visitors' questions
Where is Anatole de La Forge's grave?
In Division 66 of Père-Lachaise, in the eastern part of the cemetery. Division 66 also holds the graves of Charles Floquet and Jules Vallès.
Jules VallèsWhat did Anatole de La Forge do at Saint-Quentin?
He refused to give the town up. On 8 October 1870, as civil administrator of the Aisne, he beat off the Prussian attack with a few hundred national guardsmen and francs-tireurs, and was wounded in the fighting.
Political figures at Père-LachaiseWas Anatole de La Forge a soldier?
No, a journalist. He wrote for Le Siècle under the Second Empire and campaigned for the oppressed nationalities of Europe. The defence of Saint-Quentin, in 1870, made this fifty-year-old civilian a figure of the Franco-Prussian war.
Charles FloquetWhat else is there to see in Division 66?
The grave of Georges Seurat, who invented pointillism with Signac, and that of Adolphe Alphand, the engineer of the parks and boulevards of Haussmann's Paris. Division 66 is one of the latest to be opened in the cemetery.
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