Henry du Moulin de Labarthète (1900–1948) was a French senior civil servant, tax auditor, diplomat and memoirist. He served as

Cabinet Secretary A cabinet secretary is usually a senior official (typically a civil servant) who provides services and advice to a cabinet of ministers as part of the Cabinet Office. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powe ...

under Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

from 1940 to 1942. He was a staunch supporter of the

Révolution nationale The ''Révolution nationale'' (, ''National Revolution'') was the official ideological program promoted by the Vichy regime (the “French State”) which had been established in July 1940 and led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. Pétain's regim ...

. He was described as "an influential man in the

Vichy government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

."Jérôme Cotillon
Un homme d’influence à Vichy : Henry du Moulin de Labarthète
''Revue Historique'', 2002, issue 622, pp. 353-385 He was opposed to German policies and, after resigning from government positions in December 1943, he went into exile in Switzerland until 1947. He retired and died in France.

Early life

Henry du Moulin de Labarthète was born on March 19, 1900, in Paris.Henry Du Moulin de Labarthète (1900-1948)
Bibliothèque nationale de FranceHenry du Moulin de Labarthète
GeneaNet His father was Edmond du Moulin de Labarthète and his mother, Marguerite Pothier. He had five siblings. His paternal family had belonged to the

French nobility The French nobility () was an Aristocracy, aristocratic social class in France from the France in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages until its abolition on 23 June 1790 during the French Revolution. From 1808 to 1815 during the First French Empire, ...

since the 16th century. His paternal grandfather, Henri du Moulin de Labarthète, was a magistrate. His maternal grandfather, Edgar Pothier, was a French general. As some of his ancestors served in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, he was a member of the

Society of the Cincinnati The Society of the Cincinnati is a lineage society, fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of milita ...

. He was educated at the

Collège Stanislas de Paris The Collège Stanislas de Paris (), colloquially known as Stan, is a private Catholic school in Paris, situated on " Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs" in the 6th arrondissement. It has more than 3,000 students, from preschool to '' classes préparatoir ...

, where he passed his Baccalaureate in 1918. He graduated from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

in 1921, where he received a law degree.Bernadette Suau, ''Mémoire des Landes: dictionnaire biographique'', Dax, Landes: Comité d'études sur l'histoire et l'art de Gascogne, 1991, p. 13

/ref> He was a member of the Conférence Olivaint, a Roman Catholic student organization. He did his military service in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

in 1922.

Career

He was a senior civil servant, and became a tax auditor in 1925. From 1928 to 1930, he served as Chief of Staff to Henry Chéron, the Minister of Finances. He remained of Staff when Paul Reynaud became the Minister in 1930. A year later, in January 1931, as Reynaud became the Minister of the Colonies, he was his co-Chief of Staff. He then served at the Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale in 1932. He was appointed again as Paul Reynaud's Chief of Staff when the latter became Minister of Justice in 1938. In 1939, he was appointed as a financial attaché at the French embassy in Madrid, when

was the French Ambassador to Spain. In 1939, as France joined World War II, he served briefly in Franche-Comté and

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

. By October 1939, while Raoul Dautry was Minister of Armament, he was sent back to Spain and Portugal to negotiate the purchase of pyrite and mercury for French ordnance, but he was unsuccessful. From 1940 to 1942, he served as the

to Pétain, then Marshal of France. A Maurrassian, he became a staunch supporter of the

spearheaded by Pétain.Mathias Bernard, ''La Guerre des droites : De l’affaire Dreyfus à nos jours'', Odile Jacob, 2007, p. 9

/ref> He was appointed by Finance Minister Pierre Cathala as a financial attaché at the French embassy in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland, from 1942 to 1943. However, he resigned in December 1943 due to disagreements with the German policies implemented under Prime Minister Pierre Laval. As a result, he went into exile in Switzerland until 1947. During his years of exile, he wrote his memoirs, based on his memories of events from July 1940 to August 1942, entitled ''Le Temps des illusions - Souvenirs''. It was released by a Swiss publisher in 1946. He also wrote a history of his paternal family, published in 1946 by the same publisher. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of World War II, he was barred from the civil service in 1945. However, he filed a lawsuit and was cleared in 1948. He was a recipient of the Order of the Francisque.

Personal life

He married Béatrice Brinquant (1905–1992) on January 29, 1930.

Death

He died of a heart attack on October 10, 1948, in Aire-sur-l'Adour, rural Southwestern France.

Bibliography

*''Le Temps des illusions – Souvenirs (juillet 1940–avril 1942)'' (Geneva, Switzerland: Les Éditions du cheval ailé, 1946). *''La vie en Armagnac et en Tursan à travers celle d’une de leurs familles (1450–1942)'' (Geneva, Switzerland: Les Éditions du cheval ailé, 1946).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moulin de Labarthete, Henry du 1900 births 1948 deaths Civil servants from Paris People from Aquitaine University of Paris alumni Diplomats for France People of Vichy France French exiles Order of the Francisque recipients 20th-century French memoirists French collaborators with Nazi Germany