Guillaume de Bellecombe

Who was Guillaume de Bellecombe?

Guillaume Léonard de Bellecombe was Governor General of Réunion, Haiti and Pondichéry. According to most accounts he was born in 1728 in France.

Bellecombe engaged to Royal Roussillon and took part in French military expeditions overseas of the 2nd part of the 18th century. He had his last battles in New France and a surprise expedition at St Jean, Newfoundland in 1762. He opposed the English everywhere, whether on the seas, or in the American continent, or in the Indies. He was Governor of St Domingue at the end of his career, where he saw the slave traders unloading their "goods". He helped start the revolution of the slaves which broke out soon in 1791. This event led to the creation of the Republic of Haiti in 1804.

Bellecombe retired to France in 1792 and died in the same year.