Pierre-Paul de La Grandière
Pierre Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière (28 June 1807 – 25 August 1876) was a French admiral who was Governor of the colony of Cochinchina from 1863 to 1868. He consolidated French control over Vietnam, and developed the city of Saigon as a major port.
Pierre-Paul Marie Benoît de La Grandière
28 June 1807
Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine, France
25 August 1876 (aged 69)
Quimper, Finistère, France
Admiral
Early years (1807–40)[edit]
The La Grandière family originated in Anjou and was involved in the navy from the 18th century.
Pierre-Paul de La Grandière's grandfather, Charles Marie de La Grandière (1729–1812), fought in the American Revolutionary War, and during 64 years of service rose to the rank of Naval Commander in Brest.
One of his uncles died on the Espérance while serving under Huon de Kermadec during the search for the lost expedition of Lapérouse.[1]
His father, Joseph Auguste Marie de La Grandière (1770–1845), emigrated in 1792 during the French Revolution, returned to the navy with the Bourbon Restoration and ended his career as a frigate captain in Lorient.
His mother, Anne-Marie Chaillou de l'Étang (1780–1860), was from an old family of Breton magistrates.[1][2]
La Grandière's parents married in Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine, in 1802.
Pierre Paul Marie de La Grandière was their third child, born in Redon on 28 June 1807.[1]
In 1820 he entered the Angoulême naval school, and in May 1823 he embarked on the Circé on a voyage from Brest to Réunion, the West Indies, Newfoundland and then back to Brest.
In 1827 he was a lieutenant on the Trident in the Battle of Navarino in which an Ottoman Empire fleet was defeated by an Anglo-French-Russian coalition fighting for the independence of Greece.
In 1837 he served under Admiral Louis François Jean Leblanc(fr) in the French blockade of the Río de la Plata and distinguished himself in the attack on Martín García Island and the blockade of Buenos Aires.[1]
He explored the Paraná and Uruguay rivers.[3]
Captain (1840–61)[edit]
In 1840 La Grandière was promoted to frigate captain (capitaine de frégate).
He was made a member of the committee on artillery equipment.
He held several commands in the Levant and then off Brazil.
He was posted to the Indret Foundry(fr) near Nantes in 1844.[4]
In 1846 he was aide-de-camp and chief of staff to Admiral Leblanc, who had been appointed Maritime Prefect of Brest.[1][4]
On 20 July 1847 he married Augustine Marc'hallac'h (1823–68).
Their children were Augustin (1849–1918), Mélanie Mathilde (1857–1913) and Félix Palamède Pierre (1859–1923).[2]
In 1849 La Grandière commanded the Méléagre off Newfoundland, and that year was promoted to ship captain (capitaine de vaisseau).[4]
La Grandière was given command of the corvette Eurydice during the Crimean War.[1]
It was rumored that La Grandière had shown cowardice on 31 August for not bringing the Eurydice to assist the Forte in engaging the Russian shore batteries.
He violently refuted this aspersion.[5]
He participated in the Kamchatka expedition against Russia, where he distinguished himself although the operation was unsuccessful.
He returned to France in 1856 and joined the Department of Maps and Plans in Paris and was then briefly in charge of the Mechanics Examination Committee.[1]
In 1859 he took command of the Breslaw in the Adriatic Sea.[4]
The French under Napoleon III assisted the Italians led by Cavour's Kingdom of Sardinia in their war for unity against the Austrians.
In October 1860 La Grandière was head of the Syrian Station.[1]