First World War 1914-1918 "Golden Book of Public Education and Fine Arts Personnel"

In September 1914, twenty-five thousand members of public education were mobilised in the French army. To pay tribute to them, the Minister for Public Instruction and Fine Arts, Albert Sarraut, decided, by circular of 12 September 1914, to open a ‘Golden Book of the University’ consisting of lists of ‘those who fell, died or were wounded, on the battlefield’. From 1914 until 1920, lists sent to the Ministry by staff of the central administration, the academies and, more rarely, the military authorities or the families of the victims came from all over France. 17144 files are thus compiled, listing the primary, secondary and higher education staff and members of the central administration who were declared injured, dead or missing during that period. It is on the basis of these files, which are now kept in the National Archives and do not claim to be exhaustive, that this database was built by the Ministry’s archives and cultural heritage mission.