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Count Fernand de Saintignon

Count Fernand de Saintignon (1846-1921), was an ironmaster, industrialist, and scientist.

Early life

A member of the old family of the Counts of Saintignon, a noble family dispossessed by the French Revolution, he was born at Guentrange (near Thionville) on 26 January 1846.

He entered the forestry school of Nancy, and when he left became responsible for the forests in the Longuyon area.

Franco-Prussian War

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he took an active part in the defence of Longwy, for which he was made a knight of the Légion d'honneur.

In 1871, the Treaty of Frankfurt awarded the German Empire the territory of Lorraine, that is, part of the departments of Moselle and Meurthe: geographically, this corresponds to the current-day department of the Moselle, which, with the Alsace area, formed the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen until 1918. Thionville was integrated into the German Empire, and was now known by its German name, Diedenhofen. The inhabitants of the annexed territories were force to choose between the German Empire, if they wished to stay, or France. Many, including Fernand de Saintignon, chose to move to France and particularly to Nancy, whose population doubled.

Steel industry

In 1874 he married Louise Legendre, grand-daughter of Pierre Giraud, the owner of a blast furnace at Lasauvage in Luxembourg and another in Longwy-Bas, and the daughter of Jules Joseph Legendre, merchant, and brother-in-law and associate of Jean-Joseph Labbé in Gorcy. Jules-Joseph Legendre was his father-in-law's heir. After his death in 1870, his inheritance went to Joseph Raty, who became the agent of the Société Giraud P. et Cie. After the latter's death in 1878, Fernand de Saintignon became the sole owner of the group: it was renamed De Saintignon et Cie in 1878; in 1880 it incorporated the Société des Hauts-Fourneaux de Longwy et La Sauvage (Society of Blast Furnaces of Longwy and La Sauvage).

In Longwy-Bas, he opend three new blast furnaces. His factory specialised in producing cast iron. In 1901, he bought 2 blast furnaces in Gouraincourt.

An avid hunter, this being one of his few hobbies, he organised hunts in the forests of Luxembourg, with the meal sometimes being accompanied by a concert by horn-players consisting of workers from his factory.

Career

In the course of his career, he became a member of the Managing Board of the Committee of Foundries in France (1881), president of the Committee of Iron Foundries and Mines of Meurthe-et-Moselle, president of the Comptoir Métallurgique de Longwy, co-director of the Société des Hauts-Fourneaux de Saulnes (1881), president of the board of directors of the Mines de Valleroy (1881) and the Aciéries de Longwy (1910), manager of the Société des Aciéries de Longwy (1880), de la Banque de France (1881) and the Chemins de fer de l'Est (1881). He was amongst the founders and managers, in 1880, of the Société des Aciéries de Longwy à Mont-Saint-Martin after the discoveries of Thomas and Gilchrist. He became its chairman of the board in 1910.

He took an active part in discovering the continuation of the mines of Pas-de-Calais, south of their old limits.

He had soundings carried out to find the continuation of the Saar basin.

In 1913, his factory was staffed with 500 employees and workers, producing 173,000 tons of cast iron every year.

Spa

In 1907, he had the ground at Longwy drilled to a depth of 900 m in an effort to find a seam of coal, which was indispensable to steelworking. A small vein of coal was discovered, but more interestingly, at a depth of 353 m, a water source, the spring of Recollets, at a temperature of 24°C, of a remarkable purity. Saintignon therefore had the idea to make Longwy a spa location. The Hôtel des Recollets was built in 1912 to accommodate spa visitors, attacted by the benefits of water to remedy arthritis, and in 1913, a physiotherapy facility. The spa hotel was opened on 3 August 1914, the day on which France mobilised. On 4 August, war was declared. World War I would put an end to the business venture.

World War I and its aftermath

At the outbreak of war, Fernand de Saintignon allowed his spa hotel to be used for taking in wounded .His wife Louise devoted herself to this cause. Longwy was then occupied, and all activity ceased. The hotel served as a field hospital for the German troops. For reasons of loyalty to his country, Fernand de Saintignon refuses to honour his agreements with a German company with which he was partnered, and had to pay compensation and increased interest. His factory was pillaged by the occupiers. Saintignon's steelworking factory did not start up again after 1918. The most part of his installations, including four blast furnaces, were destroyed.

After 1918, he tried to apply the Basset procedure. From 1919 to 1921, use of the thermal source of Recollets restarted. Fernand de Saintignon started a bottling plant. But due to lack of customers, the spa closed in 1921. Saintignon then became an urban developer: he decided to sell all the land he possessed in Longwy-Bas, to have three zones of construction set up there: one for residential builings, shops and services; une seconde pour les fonctions intermédiaires, dont un garage et un cinéma, et une troisième réservée à la petite industrie et aux entreprises nécessitant un raccordement au chemin de fer.

Posterity

As he had no children, he hoped to make one of his nephews his heir. Unfortunately, his first choice, Paul de Saintignon, died in 1919 as a consequence of his wartime captivity. His second choice, Pierre Amidieu du Clos (1881-1955), to whom he had entrusted the management of the blast furnace at Gouraincourt, chose a political career – he became mayor of Longwy from 1924 to 1929 and from 1935 to 1939, and was a Deputy from 1928 to 1936.

Family

He was the son of François de Saintignon (1808-1857) and Caroline de Gourcy (1819-1851). He married Louise Legendre (1854-1932), the daughter of Jules Legendre (1830-1870) and Marguerite Giraud (born in 1835). He had a brother, Edmond de Saintignon (1843-1911), from whom all the current Saintignon family members descend.

Death

He died on 1 January 1921 in Longwy at the age of 75, usé par les conséquences de la guerre et la maladie. Ses obsèques rassemblent une assistance nombreuse et L'Est républicain titre : «  Un cerveau puissamment organisé, doté de rares qualités de travail, Monsieur le comte Fernand de Saintignon, fut certainement de ceux qui ont le mieux servi notre Lorraine. ».

Les installations de De Saintignon et Cie, dont le haut fourneau de Gouraincourt rescapé de la guerre, sont alors vendues à la Société des Hauts fourneaux de la Chiers.