Henry de Ségogne

Henry de Ségogne (born April 30, 1901 in Paris and died in the same city on December 7, 19791) was a mountaineer (including leader of the first French expedition to the Himalayas in 1936), senior civil servant (Council of State, Commissioner General for the tourism) and a pioneer in the protection of landscape and cultural heritage in France. He is the son of Georges de Ségogne, lawyer at the Council of State and at the Court of Cassation, Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1921 and Valentine Hersant, nurse major during the war and Croix de guerre 14-182. His ancestor Jacques Bonaventure Ségogne, squire, lord of La Mancellière, was adviser secretary to the King. Henry de Ségogne became a friend of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in all likelihood at the Lycée Saint-Louis in 1918. In 1920, with his friend Henry de Ségogne, Saint-Exupéry was notably an extra for several weeks in Quo Vadis, an opera by Jean Nougues. They will remain linked. Henry de Ségogne studied law and will be received license. Amateur mountaineer, member of the French Alpine Club, he forms a rope with Jacques Lagarde, an ice specialist, one of the best in French mountaineering without a guide. Their first ascent in 1926 of the Lagarde - Ségogne corridor on the north face of the Aiguille du Plan (Mont-Blanc massif) is considered one of the greatest feats of the interwar period: the steepest glacier route climbed before the modern technique of anchoring (they use ten-point crampons and an ice ax to cut steps). It w…