Tombe du Lieutenant De Gironde

The Vivières civilian cemetery contains the grave of Lieutenant Gaston de Gironde and those of two cavalrymen from the 16th Dragons who fought under his command: Marcel Neveux and Jean Chiffoleau*.
There are also 17 graves of French servicemen who died between 1915 and 1918 at the Château de Vivières supplementary hospital.


Lieutenant de Gironde, a cavalry hero, was mortally wounded on September 10, 1914 during an equestrian raid in which he destroyed on the ground a squadron of German reconnaissance aircraft stationed just beyond the ferme de l'Épine, on the left-hand side of the road from Vivières to Vic-sur-Aisne**.


Transported to the château de Vivières, where he died, he was buried on the château's lawn. His body was later raised and buried in the Vivières cemetery. On February 22, 1921, a slab covered the grave. It bears the following inscription


"de Gironde Gaston-Eugène-Marie, Lieutenant of the 16th Dragons, fallen on the field of honor, September 10, 1914 at Vivières (Aisne)".
Below:
"The cavalry golden book has no finer page than the one inscribed on that day by the squadron of the heroic Lieutenant de Gironde".




*his name is spelled CHIFFOLEAU on the monument plaque, and CHIFFOLOT in the Vivières civil cemetery, where he is buried.


** A commemorative stele has been erected at the site of the fighting

Show less