Alfred Vanderpol

Alfred Vanderpol (7 April 1854 – 17 June 1915) was a French engineer, philanthropist and author who was one of the leaders of the pacifist movement in France in the years leading up to World War I (1914–18). Alfred Marie Vanderpol was born in Tourcoing, Nord on 7 April 1854, son of François Vanderpol and Anna Knaepffler of Phalsbourg. His father's family was Flemish in origin and his mother's was from Alsace. He had an older sister and a brother who died at an early age. After living in Le Havre for several years the Vanderpols returned to Tourcoing, where on 30 December 1865 the father had been appointed to the customs office. Vanderpol attended secondary school in Tourcoing. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he became interested in the subject of war and peace. He considered applying for the École Polytechnique, and took a specialized mathematics course at the lycée in Lille. On his teacher's advice he then entered the École centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Lille, and graduated in 1876 with a diploma in engineering. From 1876 to 1877 Vanderpol undertook his year of military service in Versailles, where he served in the Engineers. He then joined the staff of the civil engineer Lombard-Gérin in Lyon. He was charged with construction of one of the first mechanical weaving mills to be established in the Pont-de-Beauvoisin region. In November 1877 the young engineer enrolled in the Faculty of Law of Lyon, where he continued the study of law that he had started while serving in Versailles. He obtained his license in 1880. On 1 November 1880 he became an engineer in the Lyon roads department as assistant to the chief engineer, specializing in bridges, a position he held until the end of July 1884. On 12 August 1882 Vanderpol married Jeanne-Marie-Claudine Berger of Lyon. They had three sons and two daughters, their last child born in 1894. After leaving the roads department in 1884 he obtained work with a gas meter factory. He then became an associate of Maldant Dupoy, also manufacturers of meters, and founded a branch in Lyon and then another in Italy.