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Concept
Jean de La Ville de Mirmont
Summary
Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (2 December 1886 – 28 November 1914) was a French war poet, who died at the age of 27 defending his country during World War I, at Verneuil.
Jean de La Ville de Mirmont was born in Bourdeaux into the Huguenot family of Henri and Sophie Malan. He was one of six siblings. His father Henri was a professor of literature known for his translation of Cicero as well as an alderman for Bordeaux.
At the age of 22, Jean moved to Paris, where he renewed his childhood friendship with François Mauriac (the latter was to recall the former frequently, most notably in La Rencontre avec Barrès, 1945). Jean held a government post at the prefectory of the Seine where he was responsible for assisting the elderly.
According to Ian Higgins, "Although unfit for active service, Jean de La Ville de Mirmont volunteered immediately when the war broke out, but it was only after being repeatedly turned down that he finally managed to enlist."
In 1914, he was called to the front with the rank of sergeant of the 57th Infantry Regiment.
According to Ian Higgins, "It has been suggested that here at last was the great adventure he had been longing for. Certainly, the prelude to the war 'interested' him, and he was keen to witness and,if possible, take part in a war which was probably going to 'set the whole of Europe on fire.' His Lettres de guerre develop movingly from initial enthusiasm for the defense of Civilization and a conviction that the enemy was the entire German people, through a growing irritation with chauvinistic brainwashing and the flagrancy of what would now be called the 'disinformation' peddled through the French press (so much more heavily censored than the British, he said), to an eventual admiration, at the front,for the heroism and humanity often shown by the enemy."
La Ville de Mirmont was mentioned in dispatches on November 4, 1914.
On November 28, however, he was buried alive by a landmine explosion at Verneuil, near Chemin des Dames.
Official source
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