Pierre Roques
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Pierre Auguste Roques | |
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Grand cross of the Légion d'honneur Médaille militaire |
Pierre Auguste Roques (28 December 1856 – 26 February 1920) was a French general and creator of the French air force.
Biography
Born to a modest family in
As Director of Engineering, Roques was preoccupied from 1906 with the management of the new air service. He was the founder and organiser of French military aviation, and was appointed the Permanent Inspector of Military Aeronautics in 1910. The 1911 aeroplane contest in Reims - the world's first - was intended to allow the French military to evaluate and buy 'scientifically' its first aeroplanes. Roques decided the établissements d'aéronautique (aeronautical establishments) should be called escadrilles (squadrons) and aéroplanes should henceforth be called avions, after the name chosen by Clément Ader for his own aircraft and in homage to this visionary engineer with whom he corresponded regularly. It was also Roques who initiated the carnet de vol (pilot's log book) system, still in use today. The names introduced by Roques quickly came to be generally accepted as part of the French lexicon.
At the outbreak of the
Roques was appointed Minister of War in March 1916 after it had been ensured that the Commander-in-Chief
Subsequently, Roques served briefly as the commander of the
His war service exhausted him and he died at
Awards
- 1912 - Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur
- 1916 - le Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur
- 1920 - Médaille militaire - Épée d'honneur de la ville de Marseillan
References
Books
- Doughty, Robert A. (2005). Pyrrhic Victory. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02726-8.
- Krause, Jonathan; Philpott, William (2023). French Generals of the Great War: Leading the Way. ISBN 978-1781592526.
