Gaston Hanet Archambault (25 February 1877 – 21 May 1951), known as G. H. Archambault, was a journalist considered by many to be the Dean of Franco-American Newspaper Men.[1]
Gaston Hanet Archambault | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 25 February 1877 |
| Died | 21 May 1951 (aged 74) Cape Town, South Africa |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Journalist |
Life
editGaston Hanet Archambault was born in Ay, Marne, France, on 25 February 1877.[1] He was educated in England at Bedford Modern School.[2]
Archambault started his career in journalism as a correspondent for British financial newspapers in Paris.[1] He later moved to Galignani's Messenger, one of the first English language newspapers in Paris.[1][3] In 1905, Archambault joined the Paris Herald which had been founded by James Gordon Bennett Jr.[1] Apart from his service in the French Army during World War I, he was in charge of the Paris Herald for fifteen years.[1][4]
During World War I, Archambault served in the French Army where he was wounded at the Battle of Verdun and was awarded the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre.[1][5][6] When he recovered, Archambault became Liaison Officer to the American Expeditionary Forces.[1]
In 1924 Archambault worked at the Paris Times for Cortlandt F. Bishop but later moved to the New York Sun before joining the Paris Bureau of The New York Times in 1933.[1] After the outbreak of World War II, when Nazi tanks were within 35 kilometres of Paris, The New York Times reported on 10 June 1940 that the French Government had fled the capital and the Paris based journalists at The New York Times understandably followed having witnessed, from their office on 37 Rue de Caumartin, over one thousand German bombs land on Paris in the early days of June 1940.[5]
On 12 June 1940, Archambault wrote about his escape from Paris, at the age of 63.[1] The exodus from Paris following the German invasion was enormous: over four million people fled on the highways in and around the capital.[5] Archambault and a colleague, Percy J. Philip, spent a night in Orléans, sleeping under the véranda of a closed restaurant, and later arrived in Tours to provide news to The New York Times.[5] Soon after Archambault's arrival in Tours the Germans did take control of Paris and breached the Maginot Line.[5]
On 23 June 1940, The New York Times announced that France had signed a truce with Nazi Germany.[5] As the war quickly progressed, Archambault moved to Bordeaux and then Vichy where the Times bureau established itself trying to find a semblance of calm in the increasing chaos of war.[5] The bureau was reduced to three reporters: Archambault, Lansing Warren and Daniel Brigham.[5]
Archambault was asked by Varian Fry to assist in publicising the arrest in 1940 of Fritz Thyssen.[7] Fry's relationship with Archambault also helped the release of Chagall.[8] Archambault wrote about Laval's ‘sell-out’ to the Germans and was then assigned to Bern in Switzerland but was back in Paris in October 1944 when the city had been liberated by the Allied Forces.[1] He was present at the French Court that approved the death sentence of Laval.[1]
In 1945 Archambault was sent to London but was then asked to establish an office of The New York Times in South Africa where he resided in Pretoria.[1][9]
Archambault died in Cape Town on 21 May 1951.[1] His funeral was held at St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa, where the pallbearers were Armand Gazel, the French Ambassador; Bernard C. Connelly, United States Charges a’Affaires; Jack E. Bruce, Minister of External Affairs; Christiaan A. Smith of the State Information Office; Robert Stimson, representing the foreign correspondents; George Aschman of The Cape Times; Johannes H. Lessing, chairman of the Press Gallery Association and Arthur J. Classen of the South African Press Association.[10]
The chief mourner at Archambault's funeral was Michael Hanet Archambault, his only surviving son.[10] The Cape Argus reported that Mr. Archambault's death ‘will be grievously regretted by all who met and admired this distinguished journalist’.[10]
Publication
editTake Heed, America, by G. H. Archambauld. Published New York City, 1941[11]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Obituary in The New York Times, G. H. ARCHAMBAULT, A TIMES REPORTER, Correspondent in South Africa Dies – Had Covered Paris for Almost 50 Years, MAY 22, 1951, p. 31
- ^ Bedford Modern School (Bedford, England); VIPAN, Herbert Edwin (15 August 1901). A register of the old boys of the Bedford Modern School. Compiled and edited by H.E. Vipan ... Together with a few chapters on its history and institutions. W.J. Robinson. p. 5. OCLC 557698898 – via Open WorldCat.
- ^ Expatriate Paris: A Cultural and Literary Guide to Paris of the 1920s. Skyhorse Publishing. 4 March 2014. ISBN 9781611458527.
- ^ Finkelstein, David (10 January 2020). Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 2: Expansion and Evolution, 1800-1900. ISBN 9781474424905.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Leff, Laurel (March 21, 2005). Buried by the Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521812870 – via Google Books.
- ^ Péréon, Yves-Marie (June 27, 2011). L' image de la France dans la presse américaine, 1936-1947. Peter Lang. p. 61. ISBN 9789052016641 – via Google Books.
- ^ Isenberg, Sheila (8 August 2019). "A Hero of Our Own: The Story of Varian Fry".
- ^ Weber, Ronald (May 16, 2011). The Lisbon Route: Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe. Government Institutes. ISBN 9781566638920 – via Google Books.
- ^ "South African-American Survey". Union of South Africa Government Information Office. June 26, 1950 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b c The New York Times, NOTABLES AT RITES FOR ARCHAMBAULT, Members of Diplomatic Corps and Journalists Mourn Times Correspondent at Capetown, MAY 24, 1951, p. 35
- ^ Take heed, America. Press of the Woolly whale. June 27, 1941. OCLC 29117950 – via Open WorldCat.
