Philippe de Gaulle

{{Short description|French admiral and son of Charles de Gaulle (1921–2024)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Philippe de Gaulle

| image = Frans vlooteskader in Amsterdam onder bevel van vice-admir Ph. de Gaulle (zoon …, Bestanddeelnr 928-4483 (cropped).jpg

| caption = de Gaulle in 1976

| office = Senator for Paris

| term_start = 2 October 1986

| term_end = 30 September 2004

| predecessor =

| successor =

| birth_name = Philippe Henri Xavier Antoine de Gaulle

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|12|28|df=y}}

| birth_place = Paris, France

| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|03|13|1921|12|28|df=y}}

| death_place = Paris, France

| resting_place =

| party = Rally for the Republic|otherparty=Union for a Popular Movement

| spouse = {{marriage|Henriette de Montalembert de Cers|30 December 1947|22 June 2014|end=d}}

| children = {{hlist|Charles|Yves|Jean|Pierre}}

| parents = {{plainlist|

}}

| relatives =

| alma_mater = {{ublist | École navale }}

| allegiance = Free France
France

| branch = Free French Naval Forces
French Navy

| serviceyears = 1940–1982

| rank = Admiral

| commands =

| unit =

| battles = World War II
First Indochina War

| mawards = Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
Croix de Guerre 1939–1945

}}

Philippe Henri Xavier Antoine de Gaulle (28 December 1921 – 13 March 2024) was a French admiral and senator.The New York Times, [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/world/europe/philippe-de-gaulle-dead.html "Philippe de Gaulle, Admiral and Son of Charles de Gaulle, Dies at 102"], 14 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024. He was the eldest, and last surviving, child of General Charles de Gaulle, the first president of the French Fifth Republic, and of his wife, Yvonne.{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article995545.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629125740/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article995545.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 June 2011|title=Did De Gaulle really hate the British? Mais non|last=Bremner|first=Charles|date=18 October 2003|work=The Times|accessdate=25 January 2009}}

Early life

De Gaulle was born in Paris on 28 December 1921 and was baptised on 8 June the following year in the Church of St Francis Xavier in the 7th Arrondissement. He was educated at the Collège Stanislas de Paris, where his father had also studied, and subsequently joined the French Navy. According to Charles de Gaulle, Philippe was named after his family ancestor Jean-Baptiste de Gaulle,{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Julian|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4159/9780674988743|title=De Gaulle|date=27 August 2018|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-98874-3|pages=58|doi=10.4159/9780674988743 |s2cid=240298556 }} but it has been suggested that he was named after General Philippe Pétain, of whom his father was a great admirer.{{cite news |last=Tagliabue |first=John |date=2 January 2011 |title=Both Hero and Traitor, but No Longer on the Map |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/world/europe/03petain.html |work=The New York Times |location=New York |access-date=7 January 2018 |quote=In 1921, de Gaulle, a great admirer of Pétain, honoured him by naming his first son Philippe.}}

Free French naval officer

File:Philippe de Gaulle.jpg

A student at the École Navale at the time of the invasion of France in 1940, he did not hear his father's appeal of 18 June but escaped to the United Kingdom, declared his allegiance to Free France and joined the Free French Naval Forces. During the Second World War he fought in the Channel campaign and in the Battle of the Atlantic. Promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1943, de Gaulle participated in the Battle of France (1944–1945) as a platoon commander of the Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins, an armoured regiment of marines of the 2nd Armoured Division. On 25 August 1944, he participated in the liberation of Paris and was sent from the Montparnasse Station to carry the order to obtain the surrender of the Germans entrenched at the Palais Bourbon in the premises of the National Assembly. Risking being shot if things went wrong, he negotiated alone and unarmed among them. He fought in the Vosges during the winter of 1944–1945.

Postwar naval career

File:Frans vlooteskader in Amsterdam onder bevel van vice-admiraal Ph. de Gaulle (zo…, Bestanddeelnr 928-4484.jpg in Amsterdam, 1976]]

De Gaulle was promoted to lieutenant in 1948, and received in 1952 the command of the naval flottille 6F. He was promoted to corvette captain (lieutenant-commander) in 1956 and to frigate captain (commander) in 1961, commanding the fast frigate (Escorteur Rapide) Le Picard (1960–1961). He pursued a military career as a French Naval Aviation pilot and was made naval aviation commander of the Paris Region (1964–1966). Promoted to capitaine de vaisseau rank in 1966, he commanded the missile-launching frigate Suffren from 1967 to 1968. In 1971 he was promoted to rear-admiral (contre-amiral), becoming commander of the naval group of test and measurement ("GROUPEM") (1973–1974) where he hoisted his flag on the Missile Range Instrumentation and Command and Control ship Henri Poincaré. He was then commander of aviation maritime patrol (ALPATMAR) from 1974 to 1975 and was promoted to vice-admiral (vice-amiral) in 1975. From 1976 to 1977 he was Commander of the Atlantic Fleet and was elevated to squadron vice-admiral (vice-amiral d'escadre) in 1977.

Promoted to admiral in 1980, de Gaulle finished his military career as Inspector General of the Navy, retiring in 1982.

Politician

From 1986 to 2004 (reelected in 1995), de Gaulle served as a senator from Paris in the RPR and UMP. Near the end of the 1960s, a "legitimist" Gaullist party led by Joseph Bozzi advocated Philippe de Gaulle as the only legitimate heir of Gaullism. The young De Gaulle's influence, however, remained very low.

Personal life

File:Henriette de Gaulle tombe.jpg]]

On 30 December 1947, de Gaulle married Henriette de Montalembert Cers (1 January 1929 – 22 June 2014), a descendant of the family of the Marquis de Montalembert. The marriage was blessed by Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu, one of the commanders of the Free French Naval Forces during the war. The couple had four sons:

Charles de Gaulle (born 25 September 1948 at Dijon), corporate lawyer, first MEP in the UDF and RPR labels, he joined the National Front in May 1999
Yves de Gaulle (born 1 September 1951 at Rabat), technocrat, general secretary of GDF SUEZ
Jean de Gaulle (born 13 June 1953 at Bourg-en-Bresse), former deputy of Deux-Sèvres and Paris (1986–2007, resigned), he became the master to the Court of Auditors
Pierre de Gaulle (born 20 June 1963 at Suresnes)

De Gaulle spent his later years at an EHPAD residential care home in Neuilly-sur-Seine before transferring to the military retirement home at Les Invalides in Paris.[https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/philippe-de-gaulle-le-fils-du-general-est-mort-20240313 "L’amiral Philippe de Gaulle, le fils du Général, est mort"], Le Figaro (in French), 13 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024. He turned 100 in 2021{{cite web|url=https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/12/28/centenaire-de-lamiral-philippe-de-gaulle|title=Centenaire de l'amiral Philippe de Gaulle|publisher=Élysée.fr|date=28 December 2021|language=fr}} and died at Les Invalides on 13 March 2024, at the age of 102.{{Cite news |date=13 March 2024 |title=L’amiral Philippe de Gaulle, fils du Général, est mort |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/disparitions/article/2024/03/13/philippe-de-gaulle-fils-du-general-est-mort_6221725_3382.html |access-date=13 March 2024 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=fr}}The Telegraph, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/03/14/philippe-de-gaulle-charles-france-admiral-obituary/ "Philippe de Gaulle, only son of Charles de Gaulle who wrote a bestselling memoir of his father – obituary"], 14 March 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024. After a private funeral at the St Louis Cathedral on 20 March 2024, President Emmanuel Macron led a national tribute at Les Invalides.[https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2024/03/20/hommage-a-philippe-de-gaulle-emmanuel-macron-convoque-le-passe-pour-cibler-ses-opposants_6223112_823448.html "Hommage à Philippe de Gaulle : Emmanuel Macron convoque le passé pour cibler ses opposants"], Le Monde (in French), 20 March 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2024.

Honours

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (2005) (Grand Officer – 1980)
Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit
War Cross 1939–1945
Medal of Aeronautics

Charles never appointed his son a Companion of the Liberation, stating {{lang|fr|tout le monde sait que tu fus mon premier compagnon}} ("everyone knows that you were my first companion"),{{r|:0}} probably to avoid being open to possible accusations of nepotism. Yet, in the opinion of some Gaullists and companions, Philippe would have been deserving of the honour, given his immediate engagement in Free France and his service in the army for five years, often at the forefront. Nor did Philippe's father award his son the Medal of the Resistance.