The men of the French Foreign Legion

Press, 26 July 1984, Page 32

The men of the French Foreign Legion

The Foreign Legion was founded by King Louis Philippe, of France in 1831, with the motto “Legio patria nostra” (The Legion is ohr nation). A tradition of blind obedience among Legionnaires — the majority of whom come from countries other than France — is well documented. In one famous incident, in 1884, General de Negrier told his troops preparing to defend French interests in Tonkin: “You, Legionnaires are here to die. I am sending you where people die.” Something of this attitude still prevails in the modern Legion, in which about 70 nationalities are represented. A photographer with Camera Press London, Benoit Gysembergh, visited a Legion outpost in French Guiana where their patrols cover 2500 square kilometres, which include dense jungle and swamps, infested with poisonous snakes and disease-carrying mosquitoes.

The regiment’s roll of honour is long and impressive. The motto “Honour and Loyalty” -inscribed in gold on every Legion standard, is deeply instilled into every Legionnaire. The famous kepi, with its flowing sun-flap over the neck, has long since been replaced by the equally prestigious green beret with its symbol of a bursting grenade, but the ideals which have shaped the Legion remain the same. To its 18,000 soldiers, in France and its overseas territories, the Legion is “a family, a common identity, a reason for living, upright and proud, apart from mediocrity.” Contrary to public opinion, criminals, minors, men with dubious pasts, or on the run from the law, are not accepted into the ranks of the Legion. It is an elite and exclusive force of volunteer soldiers, ready and able to go and fight, any place, any time, for the Legion and for France.