Léonel de Moustier
Marquis Léonel de Moustier (5 April 1882 – 10 May 1945) was a French businessman and politician. He was born in Paris into a noble family; his father, Marquis Pierre de Moustier, was a deputy and a senator. His grandfather Lionel was a diplomat, and his great-grandfather belonged to the Chamber of Peers.
He served in the French Army during World War I and received the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 and the Légion d'Honneur for his service.
De Moustier was the mayor of Cubry, a role his father had held before him. In 1928 he followed his father to the Chamber of Deputies, representing Doubs with the Republican Federation. He was mainly interested in economic and social affairs and later opposed appeasement of Nazi Germany, calling for stronger military preparation.
At the start of World War II, he returned to military service at age 57. After France signed the armistice with Germany in 1940, he was among the 80 deputies who voted against granting special powers to Philippe Pétain and against the creation of the Vichy regime. He described the armistice as treason and Pétain as a traitor, and he joined the French Resistance. He led a district unit in the Organisation de résistance de l'armée and aided the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service.
He was arrested by the Gestapo on 23 August 1943 and held in Besançon and then Compiègne, before being deported to Neuengamme concentration camp in the summer of 1944, where he died after the camp was liberated. He was posthumously named a member of the Ordre de la Libération. His son Roland de Moustier (1909–2001) also became a politician.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:12 (CET).