The chapel at Rancourt

In Rancourt to visit the French Necropolis, the German and Commonwealth cemeteries, we come across the Chapel of French Remembrance, or more correctly Le Chapelle du Souvenir Francais, and interested as they are in all things World War 1, my group go up to the small office to find out more.  A very helpful  person offers to unlock the chapel and tell us the story:

The chapel was the brainchild of Marie Du Bos, after the death of her son on 25 September 1916. Devastated and grief stricken, she wanted to commemorate him and the other members of the 94^th Infantry Regiment who had fallen trying to take Rancourt, as part of the Battle of the Somme. Her idea was to build the chapel at the exact spot he fell and surround the building with a cloister and have a lantern to the dead.

Jean’s body was left in the field at the time, but the following day his orderly, himself wounded, recovered and buried the body. He carefully noted the location of the burial, going back almost a year later and accompanied by an architect. It is in that exact spot that the Chapel now stands.

To finance the project, the family launched a fundraising campaign, and a committee was formed which had Marshal Foch as its president. The committee comprised widows, mothers and sisters of officers who had died or had been wounded in the fighting.

Fundraising took the shape of donors purchasing a plaque for 100 Francs or a stained-glass window for the nave at 3 000 Francs. Collective plaques were also available for names to be inscribed on at 60 Francs per inscription. The fundraising effort was extended to the US, where Madame Du Bos was from, and it raised 125 000 Francs.

Sadly, Madam Du Bos didn’t live to see her project completed, dying of illness in the intervening years.

The foundation stone was laid on 25 September 1920, four years to the day of his death. Financial constraints meant the nave was not finished, and the idea for a cloister and the lantern of the dead were abandoned.

The inauguration, on 22 October 1922 brought more than 10 000 people together, and it was dedicated in 1923 by Marshal Foch’s wife, herself the mother of a son who fell in the war.

Jean du Bos was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine into a cosmopolitan and well-connected family from the Parisian upper class: His grandmother, a Mademoiselle Laksa, was a diplomat and a friend of King Edward VII. His mother Marie, born Johnston, came from a prominent British family, but was born in New Orleans.

Between 1911 and 1913, Jean du Bos performed his military service in the 94tt Infantry Regiment and when war broke out the following year, he rejoined it. Fast promotion through the ranks saw him being made a lieutenant by October 1915.

Jean was wounded in the arm and thigh by shrapnel just a month after the start of the conflict and in May 1915; despite being caught in crossfire in the fighting in the Argonne, he ensured the resupply of his regiment with cartridges and explosives. It was said that he fought with his revolver at the front, remaining composed

Later that year he noticed traces of German construction work ahead of the front lines and set out to look at it more closely. Ignoring the bullets, he carried on with his observations until he was hit. This time, the bullet pierced his nose, and he was forced to retreat to the rear.   

His posthumous citation reads:  “An elite officer, a leader of men, imbued with a noble spirit of sacrifice. Already cited three times in orders and made a Knight of the Legion of Honour for distinguished past actions. Died gloriously for France on September 25, 1916, in front of Rancourt, while leading his men into the attack.”