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Joseph Athanase Gaston Paul Doumer, commonly known as Paul Doumer (French pronunciation: [pɔl dumɛːʀ]; 22 March 1857 – 7 May 1932) was the President of France from 13 June 1931 until his assassination.
Biography
He was born in Aurillac, in the Cantal département, in France on 22 March 1857. Alumnus of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers. He became a professor of mathematics at Mende in 1877.
In 1878 he married Blanche Richel, whom he had met at college. They had eight children, five of whom were killed in the First World War (including the French air ace René Doumer).
From 1879 until 1883 he was professor at Remiremont, before leaving on health grounds. He then became chief editor of Courrier de l'Aisne, a French regional newspaper. Initiated into Freemasonry in 1879, at "L'Union Fraternelle" lodge, he became Grand Secretary of Grand Orient de France in 1892.
He made his debut in politics as chef de cabinet to Charles Floquet, when Floquet was president of the chamber in 1885. In 1888, Doumer was elected Radical deputy for the department of Aisne. Defeated in the general elections of September 1889, he was elected again in 1890 by the arrondissement of Auxerre. He was briefly Minister of Finance of France (1895–1896) when he tried without success to introduce an income tax.
He was Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902. Upon his arrival the colonies were losing millions of francs each year. Determined to put them on a paying basis he levied taxes on opium, wine and the salt trade. The Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians who could or would not pay these taxes, lost their houses and land, and often became day laborers. He established Indochina as a market for French products and a source of profitable investment by French businessmen. The Long Bien Bridge was built during his term as Governor-General and was named for him. It became a well-known landmark and target for US pilots during the Vietnam War.
After returning from French Indochina, Doumer was elected by Laon to the chamber as a Radical. He refused, however, to support the ministry of Émile Combes, and formed a Radical dissident group, which grew in strength and eventually caused the fall of the ministry. He then served as President of the Chamber of Deputies (a post equivalent to the speaker of parliament) from 1902 to 1905.
He became Minister of Finance of France again in 1925 when Louis Loucheur resigned. He then served as President of the French Senate from 1927 until the 1931 presidential election. He was elected President of the French Republic on 13 May 1931, defeating the better known Aristide Briand, and replacing Gaston Doumergue.
Assassination
On 6 May 1932, Paul Doumer was in Paris at the opening of a book fair at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, talking to the author Claude Farrère. Suddenly several shots were fired by Paul Gorguloff, a mentally unstable Russian émigré, who was also present. Two of the shots hit Doumer, at the base of the skull and in the right armpit, and he fell to the ground. Claude Farrère wrestled with the assassin before the police arrived. Doumer was rushed to hospital in Paris, where he died at 04:37 AM on 7 May. He was the only French president to die of a gunshot wound.
Writings
As an author he is known by his L'Indo-Chine française (1904), and Le Livre de mes fils (1906).