Mausolée du Capitaine Joost Van Vollenhoven

In the Retz forest, near the garden of the Têtes de Chavigny forest house, stands the mausoleum of Captain Joost VAN VOLLENHOVEN, Governor General of French West Africa. But many people are unaware that this is also his burial place.


Joost Van Vollenhoven was born in Rotterdam on July 21, 1877. He became a French citizen in 1899, and was awarded the Légion d?Honneur as a civilian in 1912, when he was appointed Governor of the Colonies and Secretary General of the Indochinese Federation. He was then 35 years old. When war was declared and until 1915, he was acting Governor General of Indochina. In April 1915, he asked to be relieved of his duties and to join the front. He joined the Régiment d?Infanterie Coloniale du Marco (R.I.C.M.) on May 12, 1915. He was appointed second lieutenant on May 21. Becoming Captain in 1917, wounded and cited several times, he was appointed Governor General of French West Africa (AOF), and took up his post in Dakar on June 3, 1917. Joost Van Vollenhoven soon found himself in deep disagreement with the government, which was calling for the enlistment of Africans to be stepped up in order to bolster the frontline and make up for the losses suffered. Rejecting the compensation proposed by Georges Clémenceau, he resigned from his post on January 17, 1918, and asked to be reinstated in the RICM.


Mentioned again in April 1918, he was seriously wounded by a machine-gun bullet to the head on July 19, 1918 in front of the Mont-Ramb?uf farm, in the Parcy-Tigny commune, while leading his company during the offensive of General Mangin's 10th Army. Brought back to the rear, he died at the Carrefour de la route de Chavigny, between Longpont and Montgobert the following morning, July 20, 1918, on the eve of his 41st birthday. He is buried on the spot, at the edge of the woods. His grave can be seen there for 20 years. On November 6, 1938, a monument sculpted by Mademoiselle Anna Quinquand, Grand Prix de Rome, was inaugurated in the presence of French President Albert Lebrun and Colonial Minister Georges Mandel.


Van Vollenhoven?s profile, engraved in stone, dominates the whole: episodes from his colonial life in Indochina and Africa, and a scene of infantrymen attacking, can be seen on the monument. On either side are the Army citations awarded to Captain Van Vollenhoven and the R.I.C.M. in the aftermath of the battle.


Hammered out by the occupying forces in 1941 to remove the citations, the monument was restored in 1954.

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