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Baron Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel (11 September 1912, Tours - 9 December 1992, Paris), was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat.
He was Aide-de-Camp to
Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur
* 
Compagnon de la Libération
Baron Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel (11 September 1912, Tours - 9 December 1992, Paris), was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat.
He was Aide-de-Camp to Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
in 1940 and escaped to England with the General on 17 June 1940 with the help of General Sir Edward Spears. Geoffroy Chodron was the first officer to sign up with the Free French Forces, established by De Gaulle when he was in London.
From 1941 he served as De Gaulle’s private secretary and would later command a squadron of the 1er régiment de marche de Spahis marocains (1st Spahi Regiment
The 1st Spahi Regiment (french: 1er Régiment de Spahis) is an armored regiment of the modern French Army, previously called the 1st Moroccan Spahi Regiment (french: 1er Régiment de Spahis Marocains). It was established in 1914 as a mounted cava ...
), formed out of other units.
After the War, he returned to the French Foreign Ministry before holding several important appointments, including that of Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 16 March 1962 until 20 April 1972.
Family
The Chodron de Courcel family, who werelanded gentry
The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...
(or ''petite noblesse''), were created Baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...
s by Emperor Napoleon III.
He was the only son of Baron Louis de Chodron de Courcel (1874-1962), by his wife married Alice Lambert-Champy (1886-1967); S.E. Baron Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel had three sisters:
*Louise: married Xavier Baudon de Mony
*Elisabeth: married Olivier, comte de Chastellux
*Henriette: married Louis, marquis de Lasteyrie.
His grandfather, Baron Alphonse Chodron de Courcel, was French Ambassador to London from 1894 until 1898.
Honours
* Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur
* Compagnon de la Libération
See also
* Chodron de Courcel family * Bernadette ChiracNotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courcel, Geoffroy Chodron 1912 births 1992 deaths Concorde Military personnel from Tours, France French military personnel of World War II Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom Companions of the Liberation Nobility of the Second French Empire Barons of France