PARIS: The eldest child of French World War II Resistance leader and first postwar president Charles de Gaulle, has died aged 102, the family said on Wednesday.

Philippe de Gaulle, who was a significant military figure in his own right, heeded his father’s call to join Free French forces in the fight against Nazism in World War II. He later had a successful naval career, rising to the rank of admiral, and also became a senator.

Despite a striking physical resemblance, he was a more low-key figure than his father but devoted himself to preserving the memory of Charles de Gaulle, notably through numerous books including the successful work “De Gaulle, my father”.

His son Yves de Gaulle said that he died overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday in the Invalides in central Paris, the French military institution where he had lived for two years.

‘Sailor, admiral, senator, he never came up short when courage and honour were required’, wrote Macron on X

“Philippe de Gaulle anticipated his father’s call to join the Resistance,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a tribute on X. “Sailor, admiral, senator, he never came up short when courage and honour were required. A century of French bravery.” Macron opened a cabinet meeting with a tribute to Philippe de Gaulle and would hold a national memorial ceremony at the Invalides next week in his memory, government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said.

Eric Ciotti, head of the right-wing Republicans party that sees itself as the inheritor of de Gaulle’s political mantle, described Philippe de Gaulle as a “pillar” of France. “His life dedicated to the service of France, in the navy and in the Senate, was a living example for the Republic,” he wrote on X. “France was in his heart until the end,” added Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

‘Not easy’

He joined the Free French Naval Forces in 1940 and fought in the North Atlantic until 1944, then in France itself when the Resistance joined the Allies in pushing the Nazis out of France, taking part in the Normandy Landings of D-Day.

After the war, he saw action during post-colonial conflicts in Indochina (modern day Cambodia, Laos and parts of Vietnam and China), Morocco and Algeria. Charles de Gaulle was wary of the slightest hint of nepotism and never helped his son win a post, nor did he decorate him with the Order of Liberation after the war.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2024