Where three French generals rest in peace: the Protestant cemetery of Puylaurens

How many generals are buried in your local graveyard? I have found three in mine, all from the same family!

I did not discover my three General Reys while wandering among the grandiose funerary monuments in the Catholic cemetery of Puylaurens, south-west France. Instead, I found them buried in the Protestant graveyard, hidden away on the steep northern slopes of town like a guilty family secret. Resting alongside them are other relatives, including a Colonel Rey who was killed in May 1940 in the north of France when he tried to stop German tanks with his cavalry regiment. As one of the survivors noted, ‘Poor us with our horses!’

But back to the generals. Jean and Louis were brothers, both born in Puylaurens in the 1860s. Louis survived two world wars and died peacefully in 1960 at the age of 94. His brother was less fortunate. Throughout the Great War, Brigadier-General Jean Rey commanded the 5th brigade of dragoons. On the day of the armistice he was still alive, but he died five weeks later on 17 December 1918 from an illness he had contracted during the war.

For me, it was their grandfather who had the most fascinating career. Jean-Pierre Antoine Rey (1767-1842) fought in dozens of Napoleonic battles across Europe, including Arcole Bridge, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau and Vitoria. His last fight was down the road at the Battle of Toulouse in 1814, where he had a truly disastrous day (too long to explain here: either read Captain Edouard Lapène’s ‘Evènements Militaires devant Toulouse en 1814’ published in French in 1822, or Colin Duncan Taylor’s ‘Lauragais: Steeped in History, Soaked in Blood’ published in English in 2018). 

Public domain work sourced from Wikipedia. 
​Original painting by Henri Louis Dupray, c.1890. 

During Napoleon’s exile to Elba, General Rey was given a knighthood by Louis XVIII and appointed military commander for the department of Basses-Pyrénées (now called Pyrénées-Atlantique). He remained in post during Napoleon’s Hundred Days, but after Waterloo he was placed on the reserve list. Under Louis-Philippe, he was appointed military commander of several other departments until his retirement in 1832.

If you come to Puylaurens, as well as visiting the Protestant graveyard, you can spend the night in the Rey’s family home. Anny Lapeyre offers bed-and-breakfast in the fine old building she has renamed Maison Rey, and while you are enjoying your croissant and morning coffee, you can admire the Protestant temple next door and the gate of the Protestant Academy that was closed by Louis XIV in 1685. 

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