Jacques Chevallier was a liberal pied noir mayor of Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 who governed the city at the head of a coalition of pied noir and Moslem representatives.

He was also the secretary of state for war in the government of Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès-France

Pierre Mendès France was a French politician. He descended from a Portuguese Jewish family that moved to France in the sixteenth century.-Third Republic and World War II:...

.

Chevallier was born on 15 November 1911 in Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

. His father Etienne Chavellier was an industrialist who also had lands in Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

; his mother was born Corinne de la Bédoyère Huchet de Kernion. He studied at various Catholic colleges, including
Notre Dame d’Afrique at Algiers, and at the University of Algiers

University of Algiers

The University of Algiers Benyoucef Benkhedda is a university located in Algiers, Algeria. It was founded in 1909 and is organized into seven faculties.-History:...

 where he obtained a degree in law.
He married Renée Missé on 27 December 1932. They had five sons and two daughters, one of whom is the historian and novelist Corinne Chevallier

Corinne Chevallier

Corinne Chevallier is an Algerian historian and novelist of pied noir descent. Her father, Jacques Chevallier, was mayor of Algiers.She was born in Algiers in 1935, where she has lived ever since....

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After WWII, he helped Boris Souvarine

Boris Souvarine

Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...

 to recreate the Institut d'histoire sociale (fr, institute for social history).
He was the interim president of Institut d'Histoire Sociale from 1956 to 1957.

On 16 May 1955, Chevallier secured the parole of eleven FLN

National Liberation Front (Algeria)

The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...

 detainees who had been arrested after the November 1954 attacks, including Benyoucef Benkhedda

Benyoucef Benkhedda

Benyoucef Benkhedda was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front , acting as a leader during the Algerian War...

, the future president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic

Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic

The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic was the government-in-exile of the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale during the latter part of the Algerian War of Independence .- Creation and purpose :The GPRA was set up in Cairo, Egypt, by the FLN on September 19, 1958, four years...

.

After Algerian independence in 1962, Chevallier was one of the few pieds noirs who took Algerian citizenship and remained in the new state.