Leon Ludovic (Louis) Lailavoix

Rank 
Sous Lieutenant
Regiment 
Infantry Regiment French Army
Date of death 
10 April 1916
Age of death 
33
Biography 

Leon Louis Lailavoix was one of two former teachers at the school who died in the Great War. He was born on 1st July 1882 in Saint Rambert-en-Bugey, France to Louis, a surveyor, and Eugenie Lailavoix. He had a twin sister, Louise. He was educated in France at the Lycie Concorcet, Paris and Paris University which he left in 1904 with two certificates, the Baccalaureat-es-lettres and Licence-es-lettres. Before joining Ilford County High School in October 1907, he taught at King’s School, Peterborough and Highbury House School, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

At Ilford County High School, Monsieur Lailavoix taught French Language and Literature to Forms II a, b and c as well as Form III. His salary was £130 per annum in the year 1907-8, rising to £140 the following academic year. The following student’s memories of Monsieur Lailavoix were included within the 25th Anniversary edition of the school magazine, Chronicles in1926.

‘M. Lailavoix used the cane more than any other master in the School, but it is doubtful whether any who came in to contact with him have anything but pleasant memories of this charming Frenchman with spotless clothes and immaculately trimmed beard. The day that Bleriot flew across the Channel in 1909 was a proud one for M. Lailavoix, and his face beamed with satisfaction at the notable accomplishment of his compatriot. He had a quaint method of bringing an inattentive pupil to his senses; he would break off a small piece of chalk, place it on the top joint of his forefinger, and propel it with unerring accuracy and alarming speed at the miscreant. It was an unpleasant experience for the one whose face had been chosen for the target.’ (E. Willin- student)

‘Monsieur Lailavoix, who was killed defending Verdun, was a capital fellow. A product of the Lycee Condorcet, and of Paris University, he was moreover an aristocrat in every sense of the word. His conversion to English democratic ideals was as interesting to us as painful to him. I shall never forget one morning in 1908 or 1909 when the news of Shackleton’s great dash for the South Pole arrived. Lailavoix rushed into the Common Room with: “Bah jove, I say, you fellows, isn’t this wipping?”  His eyes were gleaming and his handsome face was flushed with the happiest and most generous of enthusiasm. The stony British stare which greeted his outburst was a revelation to both sides. It is at such moments that one’s education proceeds. It was as if we had said: “It is only the nouveaux riches who flaunt their wealth,” and he had replied, “You don’t know the real thing when you see it.”  I remember saying to him in 1907: “I say, Lailavoix, would you like to see a scrap again over your miserable Alsace-Lorraine?” “No,” he said, “ I would not, but if there were, I should go, like a bird.”  In 1914, when he was Professor of Modern Languages at Manchester University, he proved as good as his word. He was a great soul, a thorough student, an inspiring teacher, and a Christian gentleman.’ (G. Raine- teacher)

After being awarded an M.A. from the University of London, Louis joined the staff of Manchester University in 1910 as a Lecturer in French under Professor Leon Kastner. He had a strong interest in English Literature and in 1913 published a book in French about Geoffrey Chaucer.

Details on the University of Manchester’s roll of honour reveal the following about his time in the French Army. On the outbreak of war Louis obeyed the call of his country, joined the French Army and was mobilized as a Soldat de 2nde Classe on 12th August 1914. He was promoted to Sous-Lieutenant in April 1915 and died during a defensive battle around Côte (hill) 304 near Verdun 12 months later. In 1921 he was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for conspicuous valour during the Battle of Verdun.

He served in the 9th Company, 79th Regiment of Infantry, French Army and was killed in action on 10th April 1916, aged 33. He was buried at Necropole Nationale, Esnes-en-Argonne, France (Tomb 66).

Louis left a widow (an Irish lady), who in addition to their two young children, aged 18 months and three months, had an elderly mother to care for. The University was able to make a temporary grant to the family, but with a pension from the French Government of less than £60 to live on Louis’ colleagues, friends and former students started a fund to help relieve his family’s hardship and as a means of expressing their own acute sense of loss.

In the Summer 1916 Chronicles magazine, the headmaster wrote the following tribute in his editorial,

‘Monsieur L. Lailavoix is dead. Old Boys who studied French in his classes have the liveliest recollections of him, and they roar with laughter when they think of the French farce which he wrote for one of the prize-givings. He wrote the “book,” he arranged the music, and he was a restaurateur in this lively piece, which “featured” a wedding procession, a ball – and many soda-water siphons. The siphons were very effective. It was a great blow when he left us to become a Professor of French at Manchester University. More than a year ago there was a picture of him in an English illustrated paper, picking pieces of shrapnel out of his knapsack. Now he has fallen. If there are many Frenchmen like our former French Master, France must indeed be unconquerable.’

Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS

Sources:

Ancestry.com

ICHS school records and magazines

University of Manchester Roll of Honour

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Note

Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.