User:Sylvain Paquiry/François Gaudart

Key facts

François Pierre Eustache Gaudart, born January 12, 1844 in the French settlement of Karikal (French India) and died June 6, 1923 in Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes), was a French industrialist and the first elected mayor of Karikal.

Biography
He is the son of Pierre Eustache Gaudart, dean of the approved councils of Karikal, and of Elizabeth Théodora known as Lize Jude, and grandson of François-Pierre Gaudart (1732-1809), officer in India, agent of the French India Company Oriental, and Antoinette-Madhûra Nayagar (1765-1830).

He belongs to a family of old Parisian bourgeoisie descended from Pierre Gaudart, master draper, father of Claude Gaudart (1671-1741), who settled in Paris as a master mason and building contractor. His grandson, François-Pierre Gaudart (1732-1809), agent for the Compagnie des Indes in 1765, settled in French India1,2.

François Gaudart, bachelor in philosophy, studied law and became a certified counsel at the Court of 1st instance of Karikal with dispensation because of his age on July 26, 1864, then certified counsel at the courts of Karikal and Pondicherry (1867-1909) and finally confessed in Pondicherry.

Elected local councilor of Karikal (1872), then general councilor of French India (1879-1890), he became the first elected mayor of Karikal on May 30, 1880. Based in Pondicherry, he was elected municipal councilor of Pondicherry then deputy to the mayor and finally private councilor of the government of French India (1907-1923).

Elected local councilor of Karikal (1872), then general councilor of French India (1879-1890), he became the first elected mayor of Karikal on May 30, 1880. Based in Pondicherry, he was elected municipal councilor of Pondicherry then deputy to the mayor and finally private councilor of the government of French India (1907-1923).In 1902, he founded in Pondicherry, with his two engineer sons, Émile Gaudart (1872-1930) and Joseph-James Gaudart (1878-1951), the Gaudart-Sainte-Elisabeth metallurgical plant (4,000 workers) which supplies iron to all the countries. This one is named in memory of his wife named Elisabeth and includes foundry, workshops and rolling mills. From 2,000 to 4,000 Indian workers work there as well as twelve Belgian foremen who come with their families to settle in Pondicherry. During the Great War, with his sons, François Gaudart was mobilized on the spot, at the request of the English government to work on the economy of the Allies. In May 1919, after having sold, for an amount of approximately 75 million 1918 francs, the factory to BEST & CO of North India which transports the material to Calcutta, he settles in the south of the France, in Cannes where he died.

He was honoured Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by decree of August 4, 1914. In 1920, he gave the factory council of the Notre-Dame des Anges church in Pondicherry a life-size statue of Joan of Arc, in Carrara marble, as well as a square, facing the sea, where the statue is placed and where it still is.

He married, on March 21, 1870 in Madras (British India), Elisabeth Donaghue, Irish Catholic, born in Kamptee (British India) on May 3, 1849 and died in Bangalore (British India) on March 28, 1909.

Notes and références

 * 1) Pierre-Marie Dioudonnat, Encyclopédie de la fausse noblesse et de la noblesse d'apparence, 1994, page 311. [archive]
 * 2) ↑ Bertrand Ogerau-Solacroup, Etienne de Séréville, Sire de Grâce...une particule Tome G, Editions Cercles de pyramides, 2010, page 37. [archive]