Giuseppe Thaon di Revel

Giuseppe Alessandro Thaon, marchese di Revel, conte di Sant'Andrea (also Joseph-Alexandre Thaon de Revel , born October 8, 1756 in Nice , † July 28, 1820 in Turin ) was a general of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont .

Life

Giuseppe Thaon di Revel di Sant'Andrea came from an old noble family from the county of Nice , which at that time still belonged to Sardinia-Piedmont. In 1772 he became an officer in the Nice militia regiment , from 1775 he served in a pioneer association ( Legione Accampamenti ), then in the Susa militia regiment. From 1794 to 1796 he took part in the battles against French revolutionary troops as a colonel and regimental commander . In 1797 he was the Brigadier military commander of Turin, from 1803 as major general then commander of Cagliari in Sardinia , where the Savoy had retreated after the Napoleonic occupation of the mainland possessions. In 1808 Giuseppe Thaon di Revel became governor of Sassari , then in 1814 as lieutenant general governor of Turin. On August 3, 1814, the king appointed him the first commanding general of the new Carabinieri troop. On December 23, he gave this post to the Admiral and General Giorgio Des Geneys and became Inspector General of the Piedmontese Army .

Both Thaon di Revel and Des Geneys were heads of a ministerial department to which the Carabinieri were subordinate. For this reason, they are regarded as the first general commanders of the Carabinieri, although the actual leadership of the relatively small troop initially lay with Colonel Provana di Bussolino. In 1815 the ministerial department and the Carabinieri command merged, which is why the following commanders had the rank of colonel until 1822. Until 1867 major generals were at the head of the Carabinieri, then lieutenant general.

General Giuseppe Thaon di Revel created the organizational basis for building the Carabinieri. They were initially divided into six departments or regional commands ("divisions"): Turin, Cuneo , Alessandria , Nice, Novara and Savona , in 1815 the command in Genoa was added. The Dragoni di Sardegna , charged with security and police duties in Sardinia , were only taken over by the Carabinieri a few years later.

Web links

• Entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani on treccani.it
• Representation on the official website of the Carabinieri
• List of General Commanders of the Carabinieri
• Image on carabinieri.it