Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves: Encyclopedia II - Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves - Early life

Henri Honoré d'Estienne d'Orves - Early life

Educated in a conservative and catholic family, descendant of Counts of Provence, and a remote cousin of Antoine de Saint-Exupery and of Louise de Vilmorin, later companion of André Malraux, d'Estienne d'Orves spent the First World War as a high school student at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and entered the École Polytechnique in 1921. He joined the naval school two years later, becoming an enseigne de vaisseau de 2e classe in October 1923 and joining the school ship Jeanne d'Arc. He was then an officer on the battleship Provence, and several other vessels. In 1929, he married Éliane de Lorgeril, with whom he had five children.

In 1930, he was promoted to lieutenant de vaisseau, and made a chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1935. In December 1936, he joined the Naval War School for one year. When World war 2 broke out in 1939, he was serving aboard the Jaguar, as under-chief of the Headquarter of the 2nd flotilla of torpedo boats in Mediterranean Sea. In December 1939, he was an aid to Admiral Godfroy in the Headquarters of the "Force X" aboard cruiser Duquesne

In July 1940, at the time of the Armistice, he was in Alexandrie; politically, d'Estienne d'Orves was very right-wing, and had sympathies for Charles Maurras; nonetheless, while many far-right wing theoricists welcomed the arrival of Marshal Pétain, d'Estienne d'Orves was unwilling to accept France's final defeat. He deserted, gathered a group of voluntary sailors and officers, took the nom de guerre "Chateauvieux" (name of one of his ancestors) and came into relations with the Free France authorities. He set sail on cargo ship from Aden to London, sailing all around Africa for two months, and rejoined General De Gaulle in London on 27 September 1940.

He met with Admiral Emile Muselier, but was unable to obtain a command at sea. Promoted to capitaine de corvette on 1 October 1940, he joined the Second Office of the Naval Free French Forces Headquarters; requesting to be sent to occupied France, and after having convinced General De Gaulle, he received the mission to organise an intelligence network in Western France, codenamed Nemrod, which had been created in september 1940 by Maurice Barlier and Jan Doornik, but lacked coordination and development. He was officially assigned to this task on 15 December 1940.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki