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GENERAL DUFOUR

In February 1781 there was In 1819 Dufour started his
political career by being
an uprising in Geneva. The
elected to the Geneva
revolutionaries demanded
Council as a liberal. In the
liberty, equality and republi-
1840s he was to play a lead-
can government of the city
ing part in the government of
based on the American
the city and was particularly
model. The French King
opposed to the radical poli-
Louis XVI sent troops since
cies of James Fazy. He was
he thought the uprising
also elected several times to
would be a bad example to
the Parliament in Berne,
his own people. The revolu-
representing
sometimes
tionaries were crushed. In
Geneva and sometimes the
1782 about 1,000 people fled gunfire with British warships
canton of Berne. In 1843 he
the city. he was badly wounded. In
was placed in charge of the
fact, the British captured all
Genevan military in a crisis
These were the circum- of the Ionian Islands, except
stances that led to Corfu. Four years later he that opposed the radical and
Guillaume-Henri, the future resigned from the French conservative elements. The
General Dufour, being born Army. situation was resolved peace-
fully.
at the town of Constance on
the Swiss/German border on From this moment on
15 September 1787, since it Guillaume-Henri Dufour Dufour was co-founder of
the Military School at Thun
was here that his family had appears to have been blessed
and taught military engineer-
taken refuge. When he was 2 with uncommon energy and
ing there until 1831. One of
years old the French uninterrupted good fortune in
his pupils was Louis-
Revolution broke out and a
E more liberal government In 1817 he married Suzanne Napoleon Bonaparte, who
a wide variety of enterprises.
came into power in Geneva, Bonneton and they lived in a would afterwards become
so the Dufour family house in the Parc des Emperor of France (see
Henry Dunant). Later,
returned. Contamines, which lies
Dufour became a colonel in
opposite the Natural History
In 1798 the French Army Museum in Geneva. the Swiss Federal Army and
occupied Geneva and it was made responsible for
organizing the defence of
became the administrative In that same year he became
capital of the department of cantonal engineer for Switzerland. He published
0 Léman. This meant that, now Geneva, a post he was to several books on military
0 a French citizen, Guillaume- occupy for thirty-three years tactics and history, as well as
on fortifications. During
Henri Dufour could apply for From the 1820s onwards he
times of crisis in the 1840s
admission to the prestigious directed the construction of
and 1850s, Dufour was
École polytechnique in Pans. several enormous projects
In 1807 at the age of 20 he that modernized the harbour appointed to be Commander-
in-Chief of the Swiss Army.
was admitted 140th out of a area and established the
class of 144, and two years quais, giving Geneva its
Dufour was also one of the
later graduated in fifth place. present shoreline. The Ile
founders of what would
He continued his education Rousseau was given its pres-
eventually become the
at the military engineering ent form and gas lighting
International Committee of
and artillery school in Metz. installed in the city's streets.
In 1811, at the height of the He built some of the first sus- the Red Cross, and he was
president during its first year
Napoleonic Wars, he com- pension bridges. He was
of activity in 1864. For sev-
pleted his training and was
involved in planning the
> sent to fortify the island of routes of Swiss railway lines, eral years, he also sat on the
Corfu against attacks by the particularly that from Lyon board of governors of the
Swiss Protestant church.
British Navy. On 27 June to Geneva completed in
I 1813 in an exchange of 1851.
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