Samuel Gonard

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Samuel Gonard

Samuel Gonard (born June 8, 1896 in Neuchâtel , † May 3, 1975 in Corseaux ) was a Swiss lawyer and high-ranking professional officer in the Swiss Army . In December 1961 he was accepted into the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and left the military shortly afterwards. Three years later he was elected President of the Committee. He held this position until his age-related retirement in January 1969.

Life

Samuel Gonard attended grammar school in Neuchâtel and studied law in Neuchâtel and Lausanne . He joined the Swiss Army while still a student and was made a lieutenant on December 31, 1919 . After completing his studies with a licentiate in June 1921 , he switched from artillery to the army instruction service in 1923 . In the following years he visited the École Supérieure de Guerre in Paris several times . In 1927 he was promoted to captain, four years later he became a member of the general staff. In 1933 he was promoted to major . In 1937 he moved to Bern in the General Staff Department.

After his promotion to lieutenant colonel, he was commissioned by General Henri Guisan in 1939 to set up and manage his personal staff. A year later, as chief of the operations department of the General Staff, he played a major role in the planning and implementation of the Réduit national for the defense of Switzerland after the occupation of France in the Second World War . In 1943 he was promoted to Colonel Brigadier and Deputy Chief of Staff in the army command. He was one of General Guisan's closest collaborators. After his promotion to Oberstkorpsommandanten and assuming the command of various army units, most recently the 1st Army Corps , he retired from military service on December 21, 1961.

Parallel to his work in the army, he taught from 1946 to 1952 as a lecturer in war history and tactics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich . After retiring from military service, he was also an honorary professor at the Geneva Institute for International Studies.

Gonard was married twice, his first marriage to Hélène Dubois Gonard nee. Louis, second marriage to Manon Bosshard Gonard, b. Bosshard, daughter of the Swiss painter Rodolphe Théophile Bosshard (1889–1960).

ICRC presidency

Even before he left the army, Gonard had been co-opted as a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1961 . In 1962 he became Vice President and in this capacity made a long trip to Africa in the same year. In September 1964 he was unanimously elected President of the ICRC , succeeding Léopold Boissier , who had resigned at his own request. During his tenure, the ICRC intensified its activities in the Vietnam War and the civil war in Nigeria. In January 1969, Gonard resigned as president for reasons of age.

Works (selection)

  • The strategic problems of Switzerland in the Second World War. In: Hans Rudolf Kurz (Ed.): Switzerland in the Second World War. The great reminder of the active service period 1939–45. Thun 1959, pp. 39-57

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gonard, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss lawyer and high-ranking professional officer in the Swiss Army
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuchâtel
DATE OF DEATH 3rd May 1975
Place of death Corseaux