Author: Camille Dourguin
Date of birth: 1894
Date of death: 1991
Website:
Camille Dourguin was born in Maillane near Avignon in the South of France
The young Camille won a place in the Ecole Normale de Garçons d’Aixen-
Provence, from which he graduated as an ‘instituteur’
(primary school teacher) in 1913. He was posted
to the nearby village of Eyragues, but was only there
a year before being conscripted into the French Army
to fi ght in the front line during the 1914–18 war. He
survived the confl ict and on his return to civilian life
obtained a post in the boys’ primary school in St Rémy
de Provence. He married in 1920 Hélène Germain, an
institutrice, who joined him in St Rémy and taught in
the same school. Although he had to teach in French,
he never lost his love of his native tongue, and did
much to maintain Provençal culture by stimulating his
pupils to recite poems and sing songs in Provençal. He
therefore looked upon the task of producing this textbook
as a labour of love.
