monument aux morts

English translation

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History

On 24 April 1919, the Municipal Council presided over by Alfred Péchin first deputy mayor, decided to erect a monument in memory of the 170 victims of the Great War. 37,530 francs were collected through public subscription and donations from the Japy and Desfourneaux companies. Several locations were considered. Finally, Marie Bouglé, a descendant of a former deputy mayor, donated a plot of land of six ares situated within a workers' settlement in the present rue Pierre Beucler, the main axis crossing the town from north to south. The inauguration took place on 20 April 1922 in the presence of Pierre Sellier (1892-1949), a son of the commune known for having been the soldier who sounded on the bugle the first armistice, on 7 November 1918. The commune chose Armand Bloch (1866-1933) for his project, whose estimate amounted to 26,472 francs. Statuary artist born in Montbéliard (Doubs) in a family of sculptors specialising in funeral monuments, Bloch went to Paris in 1882 to the studio of sculptor Alexandre Falguière in order to prepare for the entrance examination of the École des beaux-arts. He failed and seems to have ceased his training around 1885. He nevertheless received numerous commissions executed in his Parisian studio, most often coming from personalities from Franche-Comté from the networks he maintained widely (Les Gaudes, La Gairi, etc.). He exhibited regularly at the Salons where he received medals and in national and international exhibitions. Author of numerous monuments and busts, in wood or stone, he was widely solicited by communes around Montbéliard after the Great War: 11 commemorative monuments were executed between 1919 and 1924 (Abbévillers, Audincourt, Beaucourt, Courtefontaine, Hérimoncourt, Mandeure, Montbéliard, Roppe, Saint-Hippolyte, Seloncourt, and the monument to Corporal Peugeot, Joncherey (destroyed).

Description

The iconography of the Beaucourt monument recalls the role played by the commune in the war industry. Indeed, as the birthplace of the Japy factories, it was at Beaucourt that more than 1,600,000 Adrian M 1915 helmets were produced from 1915 onwards. Designed by Louis Kuhn, head of the mechanical stapling workshop of the Japy Frères establishments, it replaced a cervelière (steel skull-cap worn under the cap or kepi) in order to reduce head injuries caused by fragmentation projectiles and bullet fire. Against a slab bearing the name of 170 missing persons, a soldier in profile presents his weapon, wearing the Adrian helmet; before him, Marianne kneeling brandishes a laurel wreath and holds in her left hand a cogwheel. At her feet are laid a sheaf of wheat, a sickle, a small clock and a heat engine. In the upper part of the monument, an Adrian helmet is represented face-on, haloed with light and resting on a laurel branch and an oak branch.