Raoul Dautry
Encyclopedia
Raoul Dautry was a French engineer, business leader and politician. He was born on 16 September 1880 at Montluçon
Montluçon
Montluçon is a commune in central France. It is the largest commune in the Allier department, although the department's préfecture is located in the smaller town of Moulins. Its inhabitants are known as Montluçonnais...

 in the department of Allier
Allier
Allier is a department in central France named after the river Allier.- History :Allier is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Auvergne and Bourbonnais.In 1940, the government of Marshal...

; he died on 21 August 1951 at Lourmarin
Lourmarin
Lourmarin is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its inhabitants are called Lourmarinois.-Geography:...

 in the department of Vaucluse
Vaucluse
The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.- History :Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes...

.

Education and career

After graduating from the École Polytechnique
École Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...

 in 1900, he began a career with the railway company, Chemin de Fer du Nord
Chemin de Fer du Nord
Chemin de Fer du Nord , often referred to simply as the Nord company, was a rail transport company created in September 1845, in Paris, France. It was owned by among others de Rothschild Frères of France, N M Rothschild & Sons of London, England, Hottinger, Laffitte and Blount...

. In 1914, during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he set up a railway routing system which enabled reinforcements to be transferred to the front for the Battle of the Marne
First Battle of the Marne
The Battle of the Marne was a First World War battle fought between 5 and 12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army under Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. The battle effectively ended the month long German offensive that opened the war and had...

. It was under his direction that a new track was laid in a hundred days from Beauvais
Beauvais
Beauvais is a city approximately by highway north of central Paris, in the northern French region of Picardie. It currently has a population of over 60,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 to the front. He held a number of important posts in the railways. He was director general of the Chemin de fer de l'État
Chemin de Fer de l'État
The Chemins de fer de l'État , often referred to in France as the réseau de l'État , was an early French railway company.-History:...

 (State Railways) from 1928 to 1937 and when the French National Railways (SNCF
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

) were set up in 1938, he became a member of its governing body.

Dautry was Armaments Minister from 20 September 1939 to 16 June 1940 in the governments of Daladier and Reynaud. He obtained the permission of Daladier to send a mission to Norway to look for the stocks of heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...

 which the Germans were anxious to obtain. During the German occupation of France, he withdrew from political life and retired to his home in Lourmarin
Lourmarin
Lourmarin is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its inhabitants are called Lourmarinois.-Geography:...

 in the department of Vaucluse
Vaucluse
The Vaucluse is a department in the southeast of France, named after the famous spring, the Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.- History :Vaucluse was created on 12 August 1793 out of parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône, Drôme, and Basses-Alpes...

.

After the liberation, he was appointed Minister for Reconstruction and Town Planning by General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, a post which he held from 16 November 1944 to 20 January 1946. Thereafter he became general director of the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique
Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique
The Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives or CEA, is a French “public establishment related to industrial and commercial activities” whose mission is to develop all applications of nuclear power, both civilian and military...

 (French Atomic Energy Commission). It was in this capacity that he selected Saclay
Saclay
Saclay is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.It is best known for the large scientific facility CEA Saclay, mostly dealing with nuclear and particle physics....

 as the site for an atomic plant.

In 1946, he was elected to the French Academy of Political and Moral Sciences.

He was elected Mayor of Lourmarin
Lourmarin
Lourmarin is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its inhabitants are called Lourmarinois.-Geography:...

and named a ‘Grand Officier of the Legion d’Honneur’.
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