Philippe de Gaulle

Philippe Henri Xavier Antoine de Gaulle (born 28 December 1921) is a French retired admiral and senator. He is the eldest child and only son of General Charles de Gaulle, the first president of the French Fifth Republic, and of his wife, Yvonne. He is the only living child of de Gaulle. De Gaulle was born in Paris on 28 December 1921 and was baptised on 8 June the following year in the Church of St. Francis Xavier in the 7th Arrondissement. He was educated at the Collège Stanislas de Paris, where his father had also studied, and subsequently joined the French Navy. According to Charles de Gaulle, Philippe was named after his family ancestor Jean-Baptiste de Gaulle, but it has been claimed that he was named after General Philippe Pétain of whom his father was a great admirer. A student at the École Navale at the time of the invasion of France in 1940, he did not hear his father's appeal of 18 June but escaped to the United Kingdom, declared his allegiance to Free France and joined the...