Joseph Rohu 1904-1996
Childhood and education
Head of family |
Joseph Rohu was born on April 25, 1904 in Carnac. He was the fourth child of Pierre and Jeanne, who would give birth to three other children after him. At the age of 13, he became a "small clerk" in Carnac. But, judging himself insufficiently educated, he asked his parents for permission to resume his studies. Thus, at the age of 17, he entered the school of the Saints-Anges in Pontivy as a boarder. Once his studies were completed, he left Carnac to work as a clerk in Ville d'Avray, near Paris, then in Dives-sur-Mer, in Normandy. The photo on left shows Joseph at age 16. The photo was taken by Alfred Rohu in Quiberon during his visit to his Breton cousins in 1920. |
In Dives-sur-Mer, Joseph met Marie-Louise Vallée, born in 1906, whom he married on 20 February 1928. They had two daughters, Marie-Thérèse (12/04/1929) and Michèle (27/04/1931). The couple settled in Lorient. Joseph and Marie-Louise divorced in 1938. Marie-Louise died in a plane crash in 1947 while on her way to Morocco.
Joseph remarried in 1954 in Nantes to Nelly Debrock, nineteen years his junior. Nelly's parents, originally from the north of France, had taken refuge in Carnac with their only daughter during the 'exodus' of 1940, which saw almost a quarter of the French population flee the advancing German army. Joseph and Nelly had five children.
Professional life
Joseph soon gave up his career as a notary. At the end of the 1920s, he took over a biscuit factory founded in Lorient by his sister Jeanne's husband, 'Le Petit Moulin' (The Little Mill). But sales were disappointing. He then decided to set up as an independent multi-card sales agent. He lived in Brest and then moved to Nantes at the end of the 1930s. Business flourished. The Belin company, in particular, entrusted him with the exclusive representation of the whole of France, a sector that stretched from the English Channel to the charentes. He hired several employees. His sister Louisa was his secretary for a time. Together with her husband he co-founded 'La Biscuiterie ded Druides' (The Druids Biscuit Factory) in Carnac in the mid-fifties. The factory closed a few years later and Joseph refocused on his main career. He converted an annex to his residence in Nantes to offices, located at 160 and 162 rue Joncours. Passionate about his job and with a large family, he did not retire until he was 80!
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An emblematic life
Joseph Rohu's life covers almost the whole of the last century. It reveals many changes in French and Breton society and marks several breaks with traditional family and regional practices. He was the first 'Breton' Rohu to marry a woman from outside his region, and this on two occasions! He is also the first to have divorced, and he did so at a time when, in very Catholic Brittany, divorce was frowned upon. His career also illustrates the rural exodus that affected the whole of France, and to a lesser degree, Brittany in the first part of the 20th century - he left his native village to live in the city. His attachment to Carnac nevertheless remained very strong, as shown by the name to the house he built there in 1949: 'Mad'bro' which means 'Good country' in Breton.
Finally, Joseph belonged to the first generation of non-bilingual Rohu 'Bretons', as the Third Republic increased measures to impose the use of French at the beginning of the 20th century. Joseph only knew the Breton prayers that his grandmother had taught him as a child. He had kept a special devotion to St Anne, mother of the Virgin and patron saint of the Bretons. Joseph died in Nantes on 10 February 1996.
Finally, Joseph belonged to the first generation of non-bilingual Rohu 'Bretons', as the Third Republic increased measures to impose the use of French at the beginning of the 20th century. Joseph only knew the Breton prayers that his grandmother had taught him as a child. He had kept a special devotion to St Anne, mother of the Virgin and patron saint of the Bretons. Joseph died in Nantes on 10 February 1996.