GOURAUD, HENRI JOSEPH ETIENNE ), French general, was born at Paris on Nov. 17, 1867. He entered St. Cyr in 1888, and was commissioned to the infantry in 1890. In 1894 he was seconded for duty under the colonial administra tion ; and thereafter he served in the French Sudan for two years. He was serving in Morocco at the outbreak of the World War.
On Sept. 17, 1914, Gouraud was promoted temporary general of division, and the following Jan. was appointed commander of the Colonial Army Corps. On Feb. 15, 1915, he was made a substantive general of division. In May he replaced D'Amade as commander of the force in Gallipoli, where he was so badly wounded that his right arm had to be amputated. He was awarded the medaille militaire on July 1 o, 1915. On recovering from his wound he went to Italy in charge of a mission, and then in Dec. 1915 he was appointed to command the IV. Army. A year later he was sent temporarily, as commissioner general, to Morocco; but he again took command of the IV. Army in June 1917. From 1915 to the summer of 1918 the sector of the IV. Army was relatively quiet, save for one moment in the spring of 1917 in which it was drawn into the ambit of Nivelle's offensive on the Aisne, and at that time Gouraud was in Morocco. Thus, when on July 15, 1918, the Germans launched their last offensive on the Champagne front, Petain had difficulty in winning him to the necessity of a "coil spring" defence. But when the time came Gouraud carried out its principles admirably, and brought the Germans' last effort to a standstill in his battle zone. In Oct. 1919 he became high commissioner in Syria and commander-in chief in the Levant. He was appointed military governor of Paris in 1924, and visited the United States in July, 1929.