Georges Clemenceau - Early Years

Early Years

Clemenceau was the son of the Vendée, born at Mouilleron-en-Pareds. In Revolutionary times, the Vendée had been a hotbed of monarchist sympathies. By his birth, its people were fiercely republican. The region was remote from Paris, rural and poor. His mother Sophie Eucharie Gautreau (1817–1903) was of Huguenot descent. His father Benjamin Clemenceau (1810–1897) came from a long line of physicians, but he lived off his lands and investments and did not practice medicine. The father had a reputation as an atheist and a political activist; he was arrested and briefly held in 1851 and again in 1858. He instilled in his son a love of learning, devotion to the Revolution, and a hatred of Catholicism.

After his studies in the Nantes Lycée, Georges received his baccalaureate of letters in 1858. He went to Paris to study medicine but did not practice there.