new book by Roger Staquet Fourné

[margaretdufay]

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Hello everyone

thought this new book might interest you.

mags

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Roger Staquet Fourné’s notebooks have become a book : the Great War day by day

vendredi 01.07.2011, 05:19 - La Voix du Nord

Friday 01.07.2011 – La Voix du Nord

Some came miraculously back, and moreover unscathed. Roger Staquet-Fourmé was in uniform, on the front line, for the four years that the 1914-1918 war lasted. From that period of his life, he brought back his diaries that he kept daily. Their content has been made into a book by his grandson from the Marcq area Roger Staquet-Solheid.

By Philippe Leroux

PAR PHILIPPE LEROUX

lambersart@lavoixdunord.fr

On the 2^nd April 1919 Roger Staquet Fourné returned to civilian life. He could at last go home. The following day, he visited the factory where he had been working before being sent to the front line, nearly five years earlier. It was in Loos, at the textile factory J Thiriez Father and Son, which would later belong to the group DMC. On the 7 th April, Roger Staquet, who was an engineer was back at work.

Nearly a century later, his notebooks are still here.Practically for the whole duration of the war, from August 1914 to November 1918, he wrote down what was going on, day by by, in the Aisne, Artois, departments, in Belgium, in Champagne and in Lorraine.

His notebooks were small, but big enough to be kept in his pocket. The writing is neat and spidery. His son Roger Staquet Tamisier- so called Roger 2, transcribed them. The man from Marcq Roger Staquet Solheil, his grandson Roger 3 pursued what had been started by his father Roger 2, and has published a book Notebook 1914-1918

« I had been thinking about doing this for the past ten years, but time was necessary, capital was also needed to do it, I also needed something to start me off..

What I wanted was to preserve his memory, to preserve what my grandfather had written. Now, if the notebooks ever disappeared, the memory has been conserved, a copy of the book can be found at the National Library “ explains Roger Staquet Solheid.

He started the work last August, painstakingly gathering all the documents realized by his father. ‘I was fifteen when he did that”

In the evening, I would hear him typing on the machine, sometimes from papers that were barely readable. “If the original texts have been religiously respected, the man from Marcq did his utmost to check things. Some of them made him correct names, whose spellings were incorrect., maybe add some missing information, especially during times of leave, or research gathered from his family....

And then there were acronyms which were used by the author of the notebooks. Military language. It was necessary to give some meaning to them. I was helped by a retired General Bariller, from the Artillery museum in Paris. It was a female friend who introduced me to him. He is passionate about this period of history. Another difficulty was the illustrations. The only ones existing were the rough sketches done by my grandfather and who recopied them after the war. I also had some photos. The worst thing is that after the book was published, one of my father ‘s sisters, after reading the work, told me that she had a photo album, of which I had ignored its existence. The book came out a month ago. A thick volume counting 463 pages, which starts with the general calling up on the 2^nd August 1914. That is when he started the notebooks, at the beginning of the Great War, the story told by Roger Staquet-Fournet is hallucinating by its density, its details; But writing it cannot have been much fun to do.

On the day of 7th April 1919, we can read « I went back to the factory, at six thirty and restarted my old job. The war is over. I have been away for four years and eight months. Here is where my diary ends. At the factory, some parts are working again : there is a lot of work to do we must not promise , but do

[margaretdufay]

forgot to give you the link

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/Locales/Marcq_en_Baroeul/actualite/Secteur_Marcq_en_Baroeul/2011/07/01/article_les-carnets-de-route-de-roger-staquet-fo.shtml?utm_source=add_this&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=partage#.Tt9a3Q1-Q-Q.email

mags