French Freemasons

Paul Naudon (16 April 1915 – 2001), was a Doctor of Law and a 20th-century French historian, author of several books on freemasonry.

François-Vincent Raspail, L.L.D., M.D. (25 January 1794 – 7 January 1878) was a French chemist, naturalist, physician, physiologist, attorney, and socialist politician.

Gustave Émile Eugène Mesureur (2 April 1847 – 19 August 1925) was a French politician. He was born in Marcq-en-Barœul (Nord) on 2 April 1847. He worked as a designer in Paris, and became prominent as a member of the municipal council of Paris; rousing much angry discussion by a proposal to rename the Parisian streets which bore saints' names.In 1887 he became president of the council. The same year he entered the Chamber of Deputies, taking his place with the extreme left. He joined the Léon Bourgeois ministry of 1895-1896 as minister of commerce, industry, post and telegraphs, was vice-president of the Chamber from 1898 to 1902, and presided over the Budget Commission of 1899, 1901 and 1902. He was defeated at the polls in 1902, but became director of the Assistance Publique. His wife, Amélie de Wailly (b. 1853), was well known as a writer of light verse and of some charming children's books.Mesureur was a prominent freemason. He was Grand Master of the Grande Loge de France from 1903 to 1910, from 1910 to 1911 and from 1924 to 1925.

Théophile François Marcel Bra (23 June 1797, Douai - 1863) was a French Romantic sculptor and exact contemporary of Eugène Delacroix. He was deeply involved in the Romantic era through his uncompromising personality and complex spirituality. His fantastical inspiration evokes the universes inhabited by Goya, William Blake or Victor Hugo - he was at one and the same time a Bonapartist and an anglophile, a passionate Christian disciple of Swedenborg and an admirer of Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Baudin Victor (23 October 1811 Nantua - 3 December 1851 Paris) was a French physician and deputy to the assembly in 1849 famous for having been killed on a barricade.

Antoine-Guillaume Rampon (16 March 1759 - 2 March 1842) joined the French army as a private soldier and rose in rank to become a general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars. He fought in many battles under Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy and Egypt. In one celebrated battle, he rallied his troops to defend the key Monte Negino redoubt against the Austrians. He saw limited service during the Napoleonic Wars. His surname can be found among the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe.

Harry Baur (12 April 1880 – 8 April 1943) was a French actor.
Initially a stage actor, Baur appeared in about 80 films between 1909 and 1942. He gave an acclaimed performance as the composer Ludwig van Beethoven in the biopic Beethoven's Great Love (Un grand amour de Beethoven, 1936), directed by Abel Gance, and as Jean Valjean in Raymond Bernard's version of Les Misérables (1934). He also acted in Victorin-Hippolyte Jasset's silent film, Beethoven (1909), and in La voyante (1923), Sarah Bernhardt's last film.
In 1942, while in Berlin, to star in his last film Symphone eines Lebens, Baur's wife, Rika Radifé, was arrested by the Gestapo and charged with espionage. His effort to secure her release led to his own arrest and torture. He was being falsely labelled as a Jew but confirmed freemason. He was released in April 1943, but died in Paris shortly after in mysterious circumstances.American actor Rod Steiger cited Baur as one of his favorite actors who had exerted a major influence on his craft and career.

Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (born Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà; 26 January 1852 – 14 September 1905) was an Italian-French explorer. With his family's financial help, he explored the Ogooué region of Central Africa, and later with the backing of the Société de Géographie de Paris, he reached far into the interior along the right bank of the Congo River. He has often been depicted as a man of friendly manner, great charm and peaceful approach towards the Africans he met and worked with on his journeys, but recent research has revealed that he in fact alternated this kind of approach with more calculated deceit and at times relentless armed violence towards local populations. Under French colonial rule, the capital of the Republic of the Congo was named Brazzaville after him and the name was retained by the post-colonial rulers, one of the few African nations to do so. (Other exceptions are Pretoria, South Africa, Port Louis, Mauritius, Libreville ,Gabon, and Victoria, Seychelles.)