Octave Meynier
Octave Meynier was a French military officer, born on 22 February 1874 at
Early life and family
Octave Meynier's father was the Marine officer François Meynier . (Octave's brother Albert was the father of geographer André Meynier.)
French Sudan
Meynier graduated from the
Four years later, in 1899, he was Lt-Col.
In 1913 Meynier was made military commander of the territory of the
]World War I
During the battle of Verdun, he assumed command of the 1st Regiment of Algerian Tirailleurs, and was wounded on 5 April 1918 by a shell that took away his left arm.
Algeria
After the war he returned to Africa as head of the military staff of the governor-general of Algeria, Maurice Viollette; from 1926 to 1934 he held the position of Director of the Territories (Saharan Algeria), and was given the opportunity to realize the web of routes covering the Sahara he had first thought of in 1914.
African auto rallies
In 1930 he organised[citation needed] the Mediterranean–Niger car rally, using the roads he had just built.
He left the army in 1935, with the
Meynier, who saw in rallying an immediate way to improve relations between the Mediterranean and African peoples, organised in 1950 the first Trans-African car rally, the Algiers-Cape Town Rally.[2]