Statue of Maréchal Gallieni at La Musée de la Grande Guerre à Meaux

This is a statue of Marshall Joseph Gallieni at the Museum of the Great War in Meaux, France.

Gallieni was a Corsican (of Corsican and Italian descent who had a long career in the French Army, which he'd entered as an officer in 1868.  He'd been captured in the Franco Prussian War and added the German language to his knowledge of French and Italian while a prisoner.  Thereafter he'd served in French colonial wars, steadily rising up the ranks.  He retired prior to World War One in 1914.

Having only recently been retired, he returned to service at the start of the Great War and became the Military Governor of Paris. By that time his health was fragile and he was suffering from prostrate cancer.  He died in 1916.