Background
Gaston Doumergue was born on August 1, 1893 at Aigues-Vives, France. He was a member of an old Huguenot family.
Gaston Doumergue was born on August 1, 1893 at Aigues-Vives, France. He was a member of an old Huguenot family.
Gaston studied at the Lycée of Nîmes and at the Paris Law School.
Gaston became an attorney in Nimes (1885), then a judge in Indo-China (1890 - 1892) and in Algeria (1893). He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a Radical-Socialist representative of Nimes in 1893, and was made successively minister of colonies (1902 - 1905), of commerce (1906 - 1908), and of public instruction (1908 - 1910) in the Combes, Clemenceau, and Briand cabinets. Elected senator in 1910, he became premier and minister of foreign affairs shortly before World War I (December 1913 - June 1914). When the war broke out in August 1914, he became again minister of foreign affairs, but soon exchanged that portfolio for the portfolio of colonies, which he retained until 1917. He was elected president of the Senate in 1923, and being known for his impartiality and fair-mindedness, which placed him above petty partisan politics, he was chosen in June 1924 to replace, as president of the Republic, Alexandre Millerand, who had resigned in the midst of bitter conflicts. When his term was completed in 1931, Doumergue retired to his country house at Tournefeuille. In 1934, however, civil war appeared imminent in France as a sequel to the Stavisky scandal, and Doumergue was hastily called back to Paris. On February 9 he formed a ministry, including Jean Barthou as Foreign Minister, which temporarily restored confidence in the country. Doumergue elaborated then a program of reforms to keep politics out of the courts and also one to enlarge the powers of the executive. Opposition to his program, and Barthou's murder (October 9), caused his downfall on November 8, 1934.
Académie des sciences d'outre-mer (France), Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques
Doumergue was single when elected, and became the first President of France to marry in office. He married Jeanne Doumergue.
