ANTOINE GRINDA – The “poilu”

A farmer, born on October the 1st, 1886 in Peille, Antoine Grinda was registered under number 1266, class of 1906, as a 2nd class soldier to carry out his military service for one year, eleven months, and sixteen days, attached to an administrative platoon, i.e. in an auxiliary service.

In 1908, he receives mail in Nice, at the Riquier barracks of the 6th battalion of alpine hunters, 6th company, and in Antibes.
In 1909, he is transferred to the reservists of the active army in the 15th infantry regiment, 28th company in Albi, Tarn.
On the 6th of June 1914, at the age of 28, he marries Eulalie Barelli in Peille. On the 28th of July 1914, he is still in Peille where he receives a letter from a friend stationed in Toulon telling him that leaves have been cancelled because of the Serbo-Austrian crisis. War has already broken out in the Balkans between Serbia and Austria, following an attack in Sarajevo.

As war is declared, he is attached to the 15th infantry regiment, 28th company, stationed in Albi, for active duty. The mobilisation takes place on the 2nd of August 1914. Only two months after his wedding, Antoine goes to war.

In November 1915, he is in Glorieux, a suburb of Verdun, opposite the citadel that houses a hospital and a quartermaster service. His wife, Eulalie, replaces him in the fields, and Antoine several times asks for permission to go on leave to help with the harvest. In June 1918, it seems he is ill and is awaiting his formal discharge. He is finally declared unfit for duty by a Castres reform commission on the 1st of October 1917.
However, in 1920, he is registered with the territorial army and in 1927, he is a reservist for the territorial army.

In 1935, marching orders dated March the 15th inform him that in case of mobilisation he is to join the Saint-Agnès for over Banquettes pass: he is 49 years old. Finally, he is released from military duty in 1937, and in 1938 he receives his army veteran card.

He dies in Nice on the 23rd of January 1971 at the age of 85.