Joseph Maurice Pambet

Joseph Maurice Pambet (13 March 1854 – 6 January 1916) was a French army general. Volunteering for service in 1872 Pambet graduated from the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and served with a number of line infantry and light infantry regiments, reaching the rank of captain by 1885. Having attended the École Militaire he became an adjutant to his regiment and then an aide to brigade and divisional generals. Returning to regimental service as a chef de bataillon Pambet began a nine-year tour of service in Tunisia from 1896.

Leaving Tunisia in 1905, Pambet gained his first command, that of an infantry regiment, before becoming military governor of Marseille. A number of brigade and regional commands followed before he was appointed commander of the 22nd Infantry Division and a général de division in 1912. Pambet held command of the 22nd Division at the outbreak of the First World War and led it into many of the early battles. After the division's poor performance at a river crossing during the First Battle of Picardy, however, Pambet was relieved of his command by General Foch for his "lack of impetus". Pambet was placed in reserve and made assistant to the commander of the 12th Military Region. It was in this capacity that he was acting when he was killed in a car accident at Plaisance, Dordogne on 6 January 1916.

Early career Joseph Maurice Pambet was born on 13 March 1854 to Pierre Eduard Elisa Pambet and Mathilde Baudot Pambet at Commercy, Meuse. His father worked for the land registry at Ligny-en-Barrois. Pambet volunteered for army service at the town hall in Langres on 15 November 1872, at the age of 18. Nine days later he was appointed a cadet at the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr. Pambet received promotion to senior cadet on 5 April 1874 and was commissioned as a sous lieutenant in the 10th Battalion of the Chasseurs à Pied on 1 October 1874, having ranked 122nd out of his class of 304 at the academy. Pambet was appointed a chevalier of the Legion of Honour on 29 December 1896. He was appointed to the staff of the Division of Occupation in Tunisia on 29 1897, a role he occupied when promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 3 November 1900. He became chief of staff of the division on 16 October 1901. He was promoted to général de brigade on 21 June 1909 and appointed an officier of the Legion of Honour on 12 July 1910. He assumed command of the 22nd Infantry Division and the regions of Lorient, Vannes, Brest and Quimper on 21 December 1912 and was promoted général de division on 31 October 1913. Under his command the division moved through the Forest of Argonne to Croix-au-Bois near Grandpré, Ardennes. where it engaged the German forces at the Battle of the Ardennes on 22 August 1914. Pambet was killed on active service in a car accident at 3pm on 6 January 1916 at Plaisance, Dordogne.