Joseph Willot (1876–1919) was a French

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

at the

Catholic University of Lille The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...

and was known as a member of the French Resistance in World War I and member of the Legion d'Honneur.

Resistance work

In 1914, he was invited by Firmin Dubar, a businessman from Roubaix, and Abbe Jules Pinte, a priest and teacher of chemistry at the Roubaix Technical Institute, to join them in spreading information from the free part of France to the areas under German occupation. Willot initially helped distribute Fr. Pinte's newsletters in Roubaix, and then from February 1915, began to produce newspapers for Lille, with a printing press in his laboratory at the rue du Vieil Abreuvoir. The underground journals had several successive names (L'Oiseau de France, La Patience, La Voix de la Patrie, etc.) until the network was discovered in 1916. Willot's wife joined the activities, writing a column aimed at the wives and mothers of French soldiers. Joseph Willot and his two partners were sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in Rheinbach, Germany. Willot was released after the Armistice, but died on 1 April 1919, having become ill in prison. He was made a posthumous member of the Legion d'Honneur.L'Abeille, June 2005 http://panckouke.free.fr/Abeille1.pdf

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willot, Joseph 1876 births 1919 deaths French pharmacologists