GUILLAUMAT, MARIE LOUIS ADOLPHE (1863 ), French soldier, was born at Bourgneuf, Charente Inferieure, Jan. 4, 1863. He left the military school of St. Cyr in 1884, and became a captain in 1893. He served for three years in Tongking with the Foreign Legion, and during the Boxer rising in 1900 was in Tientsin where he received his first wound. In 1903 he was appointed professor of military history at St. Cyr and in 1908 lecturer on infantry tactics. After being director of infantry at the ministry of war from 1911, he became chef de cabinet to the minister of war, M. Messimy, in 1914. At the outset of the World War, Guillaumat, who had already taken part in 12 campaigns, commanded a division at the battle of the Marne and later in the Argonne. Subsequently, in command of the I. Army Corps, he took a notable part in the battles of Verdun and the Somme. In Dec. 1916 he was given the command of the II. Army in front of Verdun and directed the attack of Aug. 20, 1917, which suc ceeded in freeing the position.
In Dec. 1917 he was sent to Salonika as commander-in-chief of the armies in the East (see SALONIKA CAMPAIGNS) but was recalled in July 1918 to take command of the entrenched camp at Paris in face of the enemy advance. He urged the launching of an offensive in Macedonia both at the Inter-Allied War Council at Versailles and before the British War Cabinet ; and on Sept. 4, 1918, at the London conference, his advice was adopted. In Oct. 1918 Gen. Guillaumat was given the command of the V. Army on the Aisne for the final advance. After the war he was president of the commission of inquiry into the surrender of the frontier for tresses and later was elected a member of the Conseil Superieur de la Guerre. After being entrusted with a mission to Athens, where he drew up a plan for the reorganisation of the Greek army, he took command of the army of occupation in the Rhineland at the end of 1924. He was minister of war in June but in July 1926 returned to his command in the Rhineland.