Louis LAFFERRE
See onthe map
Deputy, senator, minister, president of the Council of the Grand Orient de France.
Louis Lafferre was one of those Radicals devoted to a Republic without clergy: he represented the Hérault in the Chamber for twenty-one years, from 1898 to 1919, then in the Senate until 1924. In 1905 he voted for the separation of Church and State, which he had defended from the rostrum. As Minister of Labour, then of Public Instruction, he carried on there his fight for secular schooling. He presided over the Council of the Order of the Grand Orient de France from 1903 to 1905, and again from 1907 to 1909.
The story
Born at Pau in 1861, Louis Lafferre made his career as a Radical loyal to the anticlerical Republic: deputy for the Hérault from 1898 to 1919, then senator until 1924.
In 1905 he voted for the law separating Church and State. He went on to be minister of labour (1910-1911), then minister of public instruction (1917-1919), an office that carried his fight for secular schooling straight into the classroom.
He presided over the council of the Grand Orient de France from 1903 to 1905, and again from 1907 to 1909 — the masonic order from which much of the secular campaign was then run. He died in 1929.
The grave
A block of pink granite, set off by a bronze wreath of roses and crowned with a funerary urn decorated with a flame and a garland, on the inner path. The epitaph lines up the titles without ranking them: “ancien Ministre, ancien Député et Sénateur de l'Hérault, ancien Président du conseil de l'ordre du Grand Orient de France” — former Minister, former Deputy and Senator for the Hérault, former President of the Council of the Order of the Grand Orient de France — the parliamentary mandate and the Masonic office cut on equal terms. His wife Claudine Galveyrac, who died in 1932, joined him there. Part of the inscription is now illegible.
On site, do not miss
A monument of pink granite, adorned with a bronze wreath of roses and an urn decorated with a flame and a garland. The epitaph lines up his titles, from the ministry to the Grand Orient de France.
Visitors' questions
Where is Louis Lafferre's grave at Père-Lachaise?
In Division 92, an inner path, first row. The monument is of pink granite, adorned with a bronze wreath of roses and a funerary urn decorated with a flame and a garland. Division 92 is also home to the recumbent effigy of Victor Noir.
Victor NOIRWhat role did Louis Lafferre play in the 1905 law?
He voted for it as deputy for Hérault, at the end of a career built entirely on radical anticlericalism. His position at the Grand Orient de France, in those same years, made him one of the most exposed figures in that fight.
Victor SCHŒLCHERWas Louis Lafferre a Freemason?
Yes, and his gravestone proclaims it. Initiated in 1889, he sat on the Council of the Order of the Grand Orient de France from 1898 to 1909 and presided over it — a title the stone engraves right after his ministerial offices.
Jacques-Antoine MANUELWhat does Louis Lafferre's monument look like?
It is a block of pink granite. A bronze wreath of roses adorns its front; a bronze funerary urn, decorated with a flame and a garland, crowns it. Part of the inscription is illegible today.
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