Maurice Noël Floquet (25 December 1894 – 10 November 2006) was, aged 111 and 320 days, France's oldest man on record and was one of the last surviving French veterans of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. He is also France's longest-lived soldier of all time.

First World War

Floquet was in the artillery during World War I. His military history has been variously reported. It was said that he joined in September 1914 and served on the Belgian front in December 1914. He was wounded on several occasions. The first of these wounds came at the

Second Battle of the Marne The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack failed when an Allied counterattack, supported by s ...

. A second occurred at the Somme during hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets. The third wound occurred at Beauséjour part of the Neuve Chapelle; a lump of rock pierced Floquet's throat and obstructed his breathing. By all accounts it was an enemy soldier who removed the rock and so saved Floquet's life.France Agonizes Over How To Remember World War I Veterans
(History News Network) A year later, and back on the front line, Floquet was again wounded in the head and left arm when a grenade exploded. The hole in Floquet's head was patched up by a nurse who found a piece of someone else's cartilage. Floquet's outer ear was blown off. After recuperating, toward the end of the war, Floquet was sent to a bomb factory, and was decommissioned in 1919. Floquet still had a German bullet lodged in his arm.

Later life

After the war, Floquet married and became a tractor repairman. He worked his garden until he was over age 100. At age 110 he still rode an exercise bike for 20 minutes a day in the backyard of his apartment — an unusual feat for a

supercentenarian A supercentenarian (sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian) is a person who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of major age-related diseases ...

. However, by November 2006, Floquet was described as "confined to bed". Floquet became France's oldest living veteran on 22 March 2002 when Hilaire-Francois Dharboulle died aged 109 years, 54 days, and later also the oldest living man in France upon the death of 111-year-old Polish-born Joseph Rabenda on 20 February 2003, and the oldest living European man upon the death of

Jerzy Pajaczkowski-Dydynski Jerzy is the Polish version of the masculine given name George. The most common nickname for Jerzy is Jurek (), which may also be used as an official first name. Occasionally the nickname Jerzyk may be used, which means " swift" in Polish. People ...

on 6 December 2005. On 24 March 2005, Floquet was promoted by president

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as ...

to the rank of officer in the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

. In May 2006, Floquet became France's oldest verified man on record, when he surpassed

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n-born Émile Fourcade (1884–1995), who lived to age 111 years and 153 days. In October 2006, Floquet sent letters to

Henry Allingham Henry William Allingham (6 June 1896 – 18 July 2009) was an English supercentenarian. He is the longest-lived man ever recorded from the United Kingdom, a First World War veteran, and, for one month, the verified oldest living man in the wo ...

(then Britain's oldest man and oldest living veteran) and

Robert Meier Robert Meier (March 10, 1897 – January 29, 2007) was, aged 109, Germany's oldest living man, a combat-wounded veteran of the First World War and one of Germany's last surviving veterans of that war. Meier became Germany's oldest living man on ...

(Germany's oldest man and oldest living veteran at the time). The three shared the unique status of each being both the oldest man and oldest veteran of their respective countries. (France's then newly crowned oldest man, Aimé Avignon, who was born on 2 February 1897, thus making him almost 110 years old, did not serve in the war.) Floquet died aged 111 years, 320 days on 10 November 2006, just one day before the 88th anniversary of the end of World War I. Upon his death, Henry Allingham became the oldest living European man.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Floquet, Maurice 1894 births 2006 deaths French supercentenarians French military personnel of World War I Officers of the Legion of Honour People from Haute-Marne