Lazare ponticelli max gallo biography

Lazare Ponticelli

7 December - 12 March

Wednesday 12th March marked the end of an era in France with the death of her last surviving soldier from the First World War.

Following the death in January of Louis de Cazenave (the last Frenchman to have fought in the war), M Ponticelli who was France's last Foreign Legionnaire to have fought, became a figure of significance.

Louis de Cazenave

He had always resisted the idea of having a state ceremony, but now as the final link to an almost forgotten past he agreed to a simple ceremony: no parade of troops, no gun carriage, just an ordinary mass at the Invalides, the heart of French military history and the resting place of Napoleon.

This was carried out in private in the presence of the French President, government officials and members of the family.

In the afternoon, under a grey sky a public ceremony was held during which representatives of the French Defence Forces paid honour not only to the 8,4 million Fr Max Gallo, Lazare Ponticelli, le dernier visage de la Grande ...

QILON