A plaque to honour those who died for France
This commemorative marble plaque was recently integrated into the Geosciences collections with the support of André Mariotti, professor emeritus at Sorbonne University . Since the inter-war period, it has adorned the walls of the physical geography laboratory of the Faculty of Science at the University of Paris. Founded following the creation in 1897 of a chair dedicated to physical geography on the initiative of the geologist Charles Vélain (1845-1925), the laboratory was installed in the newly completed buildings of the Sorbonne, on the rue Saint-Jacques side. In its first year of existence, in 1898, the laboratory had more than 60 regular students devoted to the 'study of the present forms of the globe' under the direction of Vélain.
The list of the 65 students of the laboratory who died for France, as inscribed, bears witness to the heavy toll paid by these former Sorbonne students, most of whom were between 25 and 30 years old in 1914, during the First World War. Among them are the names of members of the Geological Society of France, such as the geologist Jean Boussac (1885-1916), Albert de Romeu (1875-1915), who worked in the mineralogy laboratory of the Museum, or Jacques Wherlin (1885-1916), one of the pioneers of climbing in the Fontainebleau forest with the 'Groupe des Rochassiers'.
However, the scientific qualities of these young soldiers, who were mobilised like millions of other 'ordinary combatants', were often not put to good use at the front, even though their training could have led them to special assignments. Jean Boussac, then a professor of geology at the Catholic Institute in Paris, began the war as a sergeant in the 289th infantry regiment. Wounded by shrapnel in September 1914, then by bullets the following year, he was again seriously wounded at Verdun on 12 August 1915. He died of his wounds in an ambulance in the rear a few days later, in the arms of his father-in-law Pierre Termier (1859-1930), professor of geology at l'Ecole des Mines. His wartime correspondence with Father Teilhard de Chardin was published in 1986.
By Rémi Gaillard, Head of Scientific and Special Collections Department, Sorbonne University Library.
Data sheet
- Name : Commemorative plaque of the students of the physical geography laboratory who died for France (1914-1918)
- Inventory number : in progress
- Measures : ~ 100 x 50 cm
- Date: undated, interwar (?)
- Place of storage : Sorbonne University Geoscientific Collections
Bibliography
- « Le laboratoire de géographie physique en Sorbonne », Revue de géographie, Paris, 1898.
- Nicolas Ginsburger, « Les géologues français à l’épreuve du feu », in Françoise Bergerat (dir)., 14-18 : La Terre et le Feu, géologie et géologues sur le front occidental, co-édition AGBP – COFRHIGEO – SGN, Mém. Hors-série n° 10 de l’AGBP.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin et Jean Boussac, Lettres de guerre inédites, presented by François Guillaumont, Paris, O.E.I.L., 1986.
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