From an old
Seine-et-Marne family, he initially worked as a journalist and lawyer at the Cour de Paris. He was elected a conseiller général for Seine-et-Marne aged 25 and a radical deputy for Seine-et-Marne aged 28 in 1910. He was re-elected in 1914 and remained in post until 1935. He was mobilised for the
First World War as a
sous-lieutenant. During the course of the conflict he rose to lieutenant then captain, was wounded at the
First Battle of the Marne and won the
Légion d'honneur and the
Croix de Guerre. ==References==