Robert Galley

Robert Galley (11 January 1921 – 8 June 2012) was a French politician and member of the Free French Forces during World War II, for which he received the Ordre de la Libération.

Galley was born in Paris on January 11, 1921.

Further allegations surfaced in 1997 with the publication of the wartime memoir Le chemin le plus long by fellow 501e RCC veteran Pierre Quillet. Quillet detailed other battlefield executions ordered or committed by Galley, including the killing of a disguised Waffen-SS soldier at Écouché and the execution of captured SS troops in Bavaria just days before the war ended. Galley faced no post-war prosecution or military tribunals for these events.

After the war, Galley passed the entrance examinations to the French graduate engineering schools and was admitted to the Ecole Centrale Paris, from which he graduated in 1949.

He worked and held various positions in areas of petroleum, nuclear energy, and informatics. From 1955 to 1966, he headed the construction of various nuclear plants and research facilities for the CEA. He was the Deputy Information Officer to the French Prime Minister and Chairman of the Board of Directors of INRIA in 1967.

Galley began his political career in 1968. He served as a government minister for fourteen consecutive years within the administrations of three French Presidents - Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.