Colonel Péchot and the Decauville Company

As you know, many years of fascination with the life and works of Prosper Péchot (1842-1928) resulted in my book, Colonel Péchot: Tracks To The Trenches. His near contemporary, Paul Decauville (1846-1922) lived through the same experience of war and peace in France. The two were closely linked and were both awarded the Légion d’Honneur for contributions to narrow gauge railways. In later life, they were frenemies. The railway ran through their most formative years, though the two men reacted to their childhood in different ways.

Prosper Péchot in 1907, after he had been awarded his Légion d'Honneur. Courtesy Raymond Péchot

Here are what I feel are significant events in their lives. Decauville was born into a prosperous farming family near Evry south of Paris. Péchot was born to a bourgeois family in Rennes. His father was a well-regarded surgeon and his mother came from a family of merchants. In those days, Rennes was still out on a limb, a long stage-coach drive from Paris, but during Péchot’s early years his father got a job in the Metropolis. He thus learned at first hand the benefits of connectivity. If you wonder why there aren’t many railway related pictures here, the reason is simple. There were very few railways in France at the time – in industrial areas of the northeast, and the eastern Massif Centrale.

Paul Decauville in later life. Courtesy Roger Bailly

In 1848, there was revolution throughout Europe, not least in France. The then monarch was Louis Philippe, a so-called regent on behalf of a small Royal child. At the hint of trouble, he fled. France declared a Second Republic - the first republic had of course been after the French Revolution. It came in with high ideals. ‘The government will be by the people for the people. With liberty, fraternity and equality as its first principles, the people will be its standard and guide’ (my translation). Sisterhood was not mentioned and universal suffrage did not include women. 

A new provisional government moved against the most irksome laws: press censorship, laws against free assembly and restrictions on who could join the National Guard were all removed. Almost immediately, they arranged an election open to all Frenchmen aged over 21. From 200,000 voters, the franchise leapt to over 9 million. Anyone over 25 with a deposit (indemnité parlementaire) of 25 francs could stand for election. These were heady days indeed! No-one in fact protested. Though both Péchot and Decauville were both very young, their families well remembered the national excitement.

Unfortunately, by early 1849, disillusionment soon set in. A newly formed socialist government was voted in but were not able to satisfy the expectations which had been raised. There were many unemployed who noisily demanded employment.

The government started National Workshops. Two large building projects were needed, the railway stations at Saint Lazaire and at Montparnasse. These were a splendid idea – both to relieve poverty and improve the national infrastructure – the railways of France were lagging far behind those of Britain and Germany. 

Railway under construction. This one, running across Britanny, was not built for several more years. Courtesy Raymond Péchot

These national workshops would be run like the Army with officers, platoons etc. Unfortunately, this army was overwhelmed by the army of unemployed – 10,000 at least. Rather than face a riot, the officers employed the  tactics of any sensible administrator. They employed the most likely people at the agreed wage of 2 francs daily and put the others on furlough at 1.5 francs.

The prospect of free money attracted more and more people – men I should say. New projects were started, but still the army of men wanting jobs rose. They started paying them less, but though the mood grew angry, the workers continued to turn up. Meanwhile, the Provinces were indignant that Paris was receiving immense subsidies. In June, The National Workshops were disbanded. The young workers were given the choice – join the regular army or resign. The older ones were offered work in the Provinces (to even the poorest Parisian, this was tantamount to exile) or to resign.

The socialists also passed an excellent and enlightened law restricting the working day to 10 hours. They calculated that not only would this be good for those already in work but would create new employment. In the 21^st century, the French reduced the official working week to 35 hours with something of the same aim. In both case something of the same resulted. The nominal working week may have been reduced but employers resorted to various shifts to ensure that they didn’t have to employ new people.

At the end of June, there was a mass demonstration. The government put it down with troops and there were quite a few deaths. For the Péchot family, the most vivid memory was the Archbishop of Paris, killed as he tried to separate the troops of the Republic from the protesters. Most of the nation, even the Decauvilles, considered the socialist experiment a mistake which had left most of the population poorer. Between summer 1849 and 1851, the new laws were rescinded or reframed and the new Republic lost its credibility.

Louis Napoléon Bonapart, Napoléon III 1852-70 Courtesy MD Wright

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Louis Napoléon, nephew of  the famous Bonaparte, was by training an artillery officer but had been trying to get involved with French politics since 1830, attempted coups included. Although an unspent conviction hung over him, he headed up a Bonapartist party and gathered up support over all the ‘anti-socials’ over the months that followed.  Thanks to his manoeuvrings, there was a plebiscite in December 1851 to make him president for life. This election did not take place under completely free and fair conditions. The Second Empire under Napoléon III officially began in 1852. By luck and adroit concessions, it lasted until 1870. The Empire enjoyed years of prosperity, helped by expansion of the railways bringing trade and connectivity.

The railways, by design, were to radiate from Paris in an orderly fashion. In 1852, there were short networks around Lyon, Marseille, Paris itself and to some extent in the north. As boys, Péchot and Decauville rejoiced as city after city were connected to Paris. In 1854 it was Balfort in eastern France. In the same year, it was Lyon, in 1856 Marseille. Connecting western France was more difficult as the probable traffic was less. Rouen, further down the Seine, mid 1840s, was fairly simple but a line from Orléans to Bordeaux was in doubt. The free market were never going to go to the expense.The government had to permit the Paris-Orléans to build a second route to Lyon, rivalling the one already built by the Paris-Lyon-Marseille. They threw in a few other goodies which had nothing to   do with western France. Despicable! Unfortunately for the Péchots, the line to Brittany was considered ‘uncommercial’ and the Ouest Company which was supposed to build it was not very profitable. Various inducementswere made. Paris even had to finance an Etat/State line to cover the least attractive routes.

Quaint 2-2-2 of the Ouest Company assured the Paris Rouen route in the late 1840s

 A number of ventures abroad seemed to go the way of Emperor LNB, until he tangled with Prussia. The ensuing Franco-Prussian War was by general admission a defining moment for all the French, not least Decauville and Péchot. Eastern France was overrun by Prussia and her allies, the French regular army either imprisoned or penned in neutral Switzerland, LNB was ousted and France declared a Republic.  All was not lost. Paris was heavily defended by a series of forts and moves to create a Citizen Army were successful. Every able-bodied Parisian was enlisted in the garde nationale and paid 1.5 francs a day. A corresponding garde mobile was to be formed in unoccupied France. Then and later, there were parallels with the national workshops which would come back to bite the administration. The young Paul Decauville was a proud member of the garde nationale, Prosper Péchot a brevet lieutenant commanding the garde mobile in western France.

Unfortunately, the Germans had the experienced soldiers, the railways and the industry of France. Efforts to create new armies in western France were hampered by the lack of resources, not least railways.

Decauville was to vividly remember the problems of carrying ammunition to the guns defending Paris. Péchot was to remember his experience transhipping arms from railway wagons to horse-drawn carts and then back again, depending on the position of the enemy. Both were determined to find better transport for the future.

On January 17^th 1871, in a ceremony held in he Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the Germans created a new Emperor - Kaiser Wilhelm 1, aka King of Prussia. In February, the French sought an armistice which was ratified by a new Parliament in March. Peace terms were a humiliation, a huge transfer of money to Germany, the loss of territory and 1.6million inhabitants. The Germans kindly allowed those who wanted to leave to do so – with what they could carry – so there was a refugee problem as well.

The battle of St Privat 1870. One of the humiliations of the French defea was that their troops had to fight civilians in 1871. Illustration courtesy Raymond Péchot

To make matters worse, the new Parliament cancelled the wages of the garde nationale. Paris had been one of the few regions to have voted against the Peace with Germany, now the inhabitants were being pauperised. There followed the Paris Commune. From 3^rd April onwards, there was violence. The Germans, having no doubt a sense of humour, allowed the release of no less than 150,000 French troops. These were forced into battle against the Commune who resisted fiercely. Estimates of the dead vary between six and seventeen thousand

From this unpromising beginning was born the Third Republic and the Belle Epoque. In the period, between the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Exhibition of 1889, Paul Decauville turned a small family enterprise into a portable railway system which became famous, and imitated, around the world.  Prosper Péchot invented a military version which was capable of moving millions of tonnes of freight. Neither man would have been so driven if it had not been for the experience of youth.

To be continued...

To be continued - the creation of the Péchot wagon