(28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929)
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman who led the nation to victory in the First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a central role in politics after 1870. Clemenceau served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. He was one of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Nicknamed "Le Tigre" (The Tiger), he took a very harsh position against defeated Germany and won agreement on Germany's payment of large sums for reparations.
Sophie Eucharie Gautreau Benjamin Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau was born in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, France, on 28th September, 1841. His mother, Sophie Eucharie Gautreau (1817-1903) was from a Huguenot family. His father, Benjamin Clemenceau (1810-1897) was a supporter of the 1848 Revolution and this ensured he grew up with strong republican views.
In Paris, the young Clemenceau became a political activist and writer. In December 1861, he co-founded a weekly newsletter, Le Travail, along with some friends. On 23 February 1862, he was arrested by the police for having placed posters summoning a demonstration. He spent 77 days in the Mazas prison. Mazas Prison
On his release he started a new journal, Le Matin, but this also got him into trouble with the authorities. He graduated as a doctor on 13 May 1865, after finishing his medical studies he went to live in New York. He was impressed by the political freedom enjoyed by the people of the United States and considered settling permanently in the country. He found work as a schoolteacher in Stamford, Connecticut and eventually married one of his former students.
On 23 June 1869, he married one of his students, Mary Elizabeth Plummer (1850–1923), in New York City.