Pierre de Chambrun

Who was Pierre de Chambrun?

Pierre de Chambrun was a French politician.

Charles Louis Antoine Pierre Gilbert Pineton de Chambrun was born in Paris. The Pineton de Chambrun family was of noble origin and politically prominent, providing several members of the Senate of France and the Chamber of Deputies of France representing Lozère. Chambrun trained as a lawyer and was appointed in 1892 to replace his brother as legal council at the French embassy in the United States.

He returned to France in 1897 and in 1898 was elected to the Chamber to represent Lozère, being reelected at each election until 1933 when he instead was elected to the senate. Chambrun was associated with various centre-right groupings, including the Republican Federation, Democratic Republican Alliance and the Popular Democratic Party.

Chambrun returned to the United States in 1917 as a member of René Viviani's diplomatic mission and again in 1925 with Joseph Caillaux to discuss French war debts. He served on many commissions in the Chamber and Senate. During the Second World War, in June 1940, he was the only senator among the 80 parliamentarians who voted against the grant of special powers to Philippe Pétain and the creation of the Vichy régime.