Paul Rivière obituary

Standing by the Republic

On June 17, 1940, France's new prime minister, Marshal Petain, announced that he had asked the Germans for an armistice. 'The fighting,' he said, 'must cease.' For the officers and cadets of the Saumur cavalry school, to surrender without fighting was unacceptable. Thus came the first Resistance action, as for three days the Saumur contingent held up the German advance.

Amongst the Saumur fighters was Paul Rivière, who has died aged 86. A schoolmaster, when the war began he was sent to Saumur as an instructor. After the armistice he returned to teaching, but during 1941 he joined the resistance movement, Combat, in Lyons. He worked for its leader Henri Frenay, and early in 1942 he met Jean Moulin.

Thus, within a few months, he was working with the two men who were to dominate the history of the Resistance. Rivière learned about organising flights between England and France a process interrupted by four months in jail as a distributor of clandestine newspapers. But in June 1943, while Rivière was training in England, Moulin and Bruno Larat responsible for landing and parachuting operations were arrested. Rivière was appointed to be Larat's successor.

Thus did he become one of the most important Resistance figures covering the Rhone-Alps area, bringing agents into France, and sending important personalities to England, including the future French president Vincent Auriol.

After May 1944 Rivière came to London and served on de Gaulle's staff. In 1945 he was appointed to France's security service. As a lieutenant-colonel he served in Indo-China, and from 1956 to 1959 he was military attache in Tokyo.

With the return to power of de Gaulle as president, Rivière was entrusted with military security for Algiers. Thus in 1961, when the anti-de Gaulle generals attempted to seize power, he kept Paris informed, and through swift action persuaded many officers not to join the revolt.

In 1962 he was elected Gaullist deputy for his home department of the Loire, keeping this position until 1978. In 1946, he married Genevieve Fassin, the widow of another resistance fighter, and they had three children. She predeceased him. He was buried in his native village, Montagny, where he had been mayor for many years.

• Paul Rivière, resistance fighter, born November 22, 1912; died December 16 1998

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