Baron Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel (11 September 1912,

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

- 9 December 1992,

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), was a French nobleman, soldier and diplomat. He was Aide-de-Camp to Charles de Gaulle in 1940 and escaped to England with the

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on 17 June 1940 with the help of General Sir Edward Spears. Geoffroy Chodron was the first

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

to sign up with the

Free French Forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...

, established by De Gaulle when he was in London. From 1941 he served as De Gaulle’s private secretary and would later command a

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of the 1er régiment de marche de Spahis marocains ( 1st Spahi Regiment), formed out of other units. After the

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, he returned to the

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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 were landed gentry (or ''petite noblesse''), were created Barons by Emperor

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

. 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

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, 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 * Ordre de la Liberation 2nd ribbon

Compagnon de la Libération

Notes

{{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