Latour d'Auvergne, THÉOPHILE MALO CORRET DE

Latour d'Auvergne, THÉOPHILE MALO CORRET DE, dubbed by Napoleon 'First Grenadier of the Armies of the Republic,' was born, 23d November 1743, at Carhaix in Finistère, of an illegitimate branch of the family of the Dukes of Latour d'Auvergne. He enlisted as a musketeer in 1767, and distinguished himself at the siege of Port Mahon in 1782. But he steadily refused advancement in military rank, and was killed, a simple captain, on 28th June 1800 at Oberhausen, near Neuburg in Bavaria. His remains were carried to Paris and interred in the Panthéon on 4th August 1889. French biographies are full of instances of his daring valour, his Spartan simplicity of life, and his chivalrous affection for his friends. When he died the whole French army mourned for him three days; his sabre was placed in the church of the Invalides at Paris; and every morning, till the close of the empire, at the muster-roll of his regiment his name continued to be called, and the senior sergeant answered to the call: 'Mort au champ d'honneur' (Dead on the field of honour). Latour d'Auvergne was also a respectable student of languages, and wrote Recherches sur la Langue, l'Origine, et les Antiquités des Bretons (1792). See Lives by Buhot de Kersers (1874) and Simond (1895).