Jacques Fosse

The elder Alexander Dumas’s ‘Bric-à-brac’ (published in 1861), gives an account of the life of Jacques Fosse, a man so renowned for his bravery that he was proclaimed premier lifesaver of France by the Société des Sauveteurs de France.

According to Dumas, Fosse was born on 14 June 1819. He saved his first life shortly after his eleventh birthday, when he rescued a drowning eighteen-year-old boy. Although he became, by profession, a successful grain merchant, in his spare time he continued to save lives. In fact, he saved so many that he began to garner awards and medals, culminating, in 1849, with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, although this was by no means the last of his decorations.

Dumas lists many of Fosse’s exploits, giving brief details for them all. Shortly before his article went to press, Fosse was present at a dinner given by the Société des Sauveteurs de France in Paris on 16 December 1860, at which he was named ‘le premier sauveteur de France’. His portrait apparently appeared at this time in L’Illustration, a popular illustrated journal, which also enumerated ‘his acts of courage and devotion’. It seems likely that this is the portrait on which that illustration was based.

Photographed by Pierre Petit of Paris.