Raymond Triboulet, a World War II Resistance fighter who helped to stage the D-Day landings in Normandy before serving as minister under Charles de Gaulle, died on Friday at the age of 99.
Enrolled in the French army and taken prisoner at the start of the war, Triboulet returned home under the German occupation in 1941, and signed up to join the Calvados section of the CDLR Resistance group.
By informing Allied forces of German movements between the towns of Caen and Bayeux, he contributed to the success of the June 6 1944 landings.
Following the landings, De Gaulle named him the first local governor of Liberated France, in the Normandy town of Bayeux.
An officer of the French Legion of Honour, holder of the Croix de Guerre, Triboulet was also a Knight Commander of the British Empire.
Born in Paris on October 3 1906, Triboulet studied law and literature and worked for several years as a farmer before the war broke out — after which he pursued an active career in politics as a fervent Gaullist.
Elected a deputy in 1946 in the Calvados, he remained an MP until 1973. He was twice named minister for war veterans under De Gaulle, in 1955 and 1959, serving as junior cooperation minister until 1966.
Triboulet, who died early on Friday in a hospital in the Paris region, was the father of six children. — AFP