Henri Philippe Pétain

Born in Cauch-à-la-Tour in 1856, he was a distinguished veteran of World War I, and in particular the battle of Verdun.

He was leader of Vichy France from 1940 to 1944. On September 7, 1944 he and other members of the Vichy cabinet fled to Sigmaringen. In April 1945 he returned to France, where he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death in July - August 1946. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle on August 17, 1946, on the grounds of his old age. He died in imprisonment on l'Île d'Yeu[?], an island off the coast of Brittany, in 1951.

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