Édouard Lockroy (18 July 183822 November 1913) was a French

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

born in

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, the son of Joseph Philippe Simon (1803–1891), an actor and dramatist who took the name of Lockroy, and of Antoinette Stéphanie Lockroy who wrote two books of fairy tales (Les fées de la famille et Contes à mes nièces).

Revolutionary

Lockroy began studying art, but in 1860 enlisted as a volunteer under Garibaldi. The next three years were spent in

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as secretary to

Ernest Renan Joseph Ernest Renan (; ; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, writing on Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote wo ...

, and on his return to Paris he embarked in militant journalism against the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

in ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'', the '' Diable à quatre'', and eventually in '' Le Rappel'', with which his name was thenceforward intimately connected. He commanded a battalion during the siege of Paris, and in February 1871 was elected deputy to the

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where he sat on the extreme left and protested against the preliminaries of peace.

Radical politician

In March Lockroy signed the proclamation for the election of the

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, and resigned his seat as deputy. Arrested at

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, he remained a prisoner at

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and

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until June, when he was released without being tried. He was more than once imprisoned for violent articles in the press, and in 1872 for a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

with Paul de Cassagnac. Lockroy was returned to the Chamber in 1873 as Radical deputy for

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in 1876, 1877 and 1881 for Aix, and in 1881 he was also elected in the

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. He chose to sit for Paris, and was repeatedly re-elected. During the elections of 1893 he was shot at by a cab-driver poet named Moore, but was not seriously injured. For the first ten years of his parliamentary life he voted consistently with the extreme left, but then adopted a more opportunist policy, and gave his unreserved support to the Brisson ministry of 1885.

Cabinet member

In the new Freycinet cabinet formed in January 1886 Lockroy held the portfolio of commerce and industry, which he retained in the

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ministry of 1886–1887. In 1885 he had been returned at the head of the poll for Paris, and his inclusion in the Freycinet ministry was taken to indicate a prospect of reconciliation between Parisian Radicalism and official

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. During his tenure of the portfolio of commerce and industry he made the preliminary arrangements for the Exposition of 1889, and in a witty letter he defended the erection of the

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against artistic Paris. After the

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and Boulangist scandals Lockroy became one of the leading politicians of the Radical party. He was vice-president of the Chamber in 1894 and in 1895, when he became minister of marine under Léon Bourgeois. His drastic measures of reform alarmed moderate politicians, but he had the confidence of the country, and held the same portfolio under Henri Brisson (1898) and Charles Dupuy (1898–1899). Lockroy gave his support to the Waldeck-Rousseau Administration, but actively criticized the marine policy of Camille Pelletan in the Combes ministry of 1902–1905, during which period he was again vice-president of the Chamber. In 1905, he voted for the law separating the church and state.

Works

Lockroy was a persistent and successful advocate of a strong naval policy, in defence of which he published: *''La Marine de Guerre'' (1890) *''Six mois rue Royale'' (1897) *''La Défense navale'' (1900) *''Du Weser à la Vistula'' (1901) *''Les Marines française et allemande'' (1904) *''Le Programme naval'' (1906) His other works include ''M. de Moltke et la guerre future'' (1891) and ''Journal d'une bourgeoise pendant la Révolution'' (1881) derived from the letters of his great-grandmother.

Personal life

In 1877 Lockroy married Alice Lehaene, the widowed daughter-in-law of the poet

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

. He was the stepfather of Jeanne Hugo. In 1913 he published his memoirs, ''Au hasard de la vie : Notes et Souvenirs''. He died on 22 November 1913, and was buried three days later in the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

.E. Delaroche
Les obsèques de M. Édouard Lockroy
in ''Le Figaro'', 26 November 1913, (in French)

Notes

References