An apartment-building plaque, neighbourhood memory
This plaque belongs to a very specific type of Parisian commemorative monument: the apartment-building plaques, financed by the co-owners or tenants of a single building, paying tribute to their neighbours who fell during the Great War. Thousands exist throughout Paris, particularly in the northern and eastern arrondissements where mobilisation hit hard. They are monuments of neighbourhood memory — as opposed to the great municipal or national war memorials, these plaques tell the war on the scale of the stairwell, the landing, the concierge.
At no. 34, eight men are named. Based on research conducted in the records of the City of Paris 1914-1918 Memorial (arrondissement books of honour), three of them have been identified with strong confidence.
Three retraced paths
Alfred Joseph Ghislain Chenivesse
315th Infantry Regiment · Killed on 25 September 1915 at Auberive (Marne)
Recorded in the 18th arrondissement of Paris in the municipal books of honour, Alfred Chenivesse — whose name is engraved as "Chenevesse" on the plaque, a common spelling variant — died at Auberive (Marne) on 25 September 1915, the first day of the Second Battle of Champagne, one of the major deadly offensives of 1915. The 315th RI, formed at Compiègne, was that day engaged in a frontal offensive against the German positions of the Moronvilliers massif; losses were massive from the very first hours.
Louis Jean de Jarny
119th Infantry Regiment · Killed on 20 June 1915 at Aix-Noulette (Pas-de-Calais)
Recorded in the 18th arrondissement, Louis Jean de Jarny was killed on 20 June 1915 at Aix-Noulette (Pas-de-Calais), during the Second Battle of Artois (May-June 1915). The 119th RI, originally from Courbevoie, took part in fierce fighting around Hill 119 and the "Labyrinth" — a network of German trenches and saps that the French tried in vain to break through for weeks, at the cost of appalling losses. Aix-Noulette is one of the most disputed crossing points of the Artois front.
Émile Brindeau
1st Artillery Convoy · Died on 23 September 1918 at Sens (Yonne)
Recorded in the 18th arrondissement, Émile Brindeau died on 23 September 1918 at Sens (Yonne) — a few weeks before the armistice of 11 November. The 1st Artillery Convoy is a logistics unit, not strictly a combat one, which suggests that Émile Brindeau probably died of an illness contracted at the front (the great Spanish flu pandemic was then raging, as was tuberculosis in military hospitals) or of complications from an earlier wound. Sens, a garrison town in the rear, housed several auxiliary hospitals.
The five other names engraved
The other names inscribed on the plaque are:
- Carlier
- Coudray
- Huré
- Sabourin
- Martel
Sabourin and Martel appear on the lower band of the plaque, projecting beneath the main block — likely names inscribed after the initial installation, while respecting the same enamelled-lava typography.
A reading of the neighbourhood in 1914
Eight dead in a single building: this is considerable, even compared to the national average (1.4 million dead out of 40 million inhabitants, or ≈ 3.5% of the population). The 18th arrondissement, working-class and popular, supplied massive cannon fodder — its men were poured into reserve infantry regiments, the most exposed. More than the artists of no. 34, it was first and foremost its workers, its employees, its ordinary folk who paid the tribute of modern war.
The presence of this plaque also reminds us that 1914 was the year Georges Petit lived at no. 34 (see the Georges Petit entry): the baritone, then 31 years old, escaped mobilisation for reasons probably linked to his profession as a state lyrical artist (the Paris Opera enjoyed a special regime in wartime). While Petit pursued his career at the Palais Garnier, his neighbours went to the front; the plaque carves into stone this double life of the building.
Sources & resources
- City of Paris 1914-1918 Memorial — database of the arrondissement books of honour, listing Parisians who died for France during the First World War, sorted by arrondissement of residence.
- Mémoire des Hommes — French Armed Forces Ministry database listing all those who died for France in both World Wars, with service records and places of death.
- Chemin des Dames · Verdun Memorial · Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne — for context on the major offensives mentioned.
- On Parisian apartment-building plaques: Christine Vialard, Mémoires des morts pour la France à Paris : un patrimoine à découvrir, Paris, Mairie de Paris, 2014.
- On the Second Battle of Champagne (where Chenivesse died): Yves Buffetaut, L'offensive de Champagne, septembre-octobre 1915, Histoire & Collections, 2014.
- On the Second Battle of Artois (where De Jarny died): Olivier Aranda, L'Artois 1914-1915 : la guerre des tranchées, Tallandier, 2015.