Marie Chiffon

Marie Chiffon (née Marie Augustine Gaboriaud; 1835–1882) was a militant republican who served as an ambulance nurse in the Paris Commune in 1871. She was known as "la Capitaine" ("the captain"). For her actions during the Commune, she was deported to New Caledonia. She died there in 1882.

Biography Born into a family of peasants on 24 August 1835 in Ardelay (Vendée), Marie Augustine Gaboriaud left to work as a washerwoman in Paris in the 1860s. On 15 January 1867, she married Jules Chiffon, a merchant from a family of stonemasons from the Dijon region. where she and her husband lived.

For her actions during the Commune, she was imprisoned at Versailles, The court condemned her to twenty years of forced labour on 11 May 1872. After the rejection of her appeal on 5 July 1872, she was deported on the Orne and arrived in Nouméa, New Caledonia, on 16 July 1874. but she stayed in New Caledonia. She died on 14 January 1882 at Magenta, Nouméa, and is buried there.