Maxime Weygand

Maxime Weygand (21 January 1867 in Belgium - 29 January 1965) was a career French army officer in both World Wars.

Weygand was raised in France and educated at the Saint-Cyr military academy in Paris. After graduating in 1887, he went on to become an instructor at the Cavalry School at Saumur. During World War I, Weygand served as a staff officer to General (later Marshal) Ferdinand Foch and from the end of 1917 C.G.S. of the Allied Forces in France. He was Secretary-General of the Allied Military Committee at Versailles in 1919; he then served as an advisor to Poland during their Polish-Soviet War in 1920; in 1923 he was appointed French High Commissioner for The Levant. From 1931 to 1935 he was Vice-President of the Supreme War Council and then returned to The Levant. He was recalled from Beirut in May 1940 and became Commander-in-Chief of the French armies during the second phase of the Battle for France. Following the German-French Armistice in June 1940, of which he was firmly in favour, he was sent by the French government to take command of the military forces in French North Africa.