Louis de Cazenave

Who was Louis de Cazenave?

Louis de Cazenave was, at the time of his death, the oldest surviving French veteran of World War I.

De Cazenave became the oldest poilu following the death of 111-year-old Maurice Floquet on November 10, 2006. He was also the oldest living Frenchman, as of August 23, 2007, and became the fourth-oldest man in Europe and the eleventh-oldest man in the world on December 11, 2007 until his own death just 40 days later.

Following the death of de Cazenave, Italian native Lazare Ponticelli became the last officially recognized French veteran of the First World War, until his own death on March 12, 2008. Two further French veterans, Fernand Goux and Pierre Picault, died later in 2008, but neither was officially recognised as the last French veteran of the war by the government of France because they served fewer than three months.