Clémenceau, Georges Eugène Benjamin (1841-1929)

French prime minister Georges Clémenceau. An outspoken radical, his appointment of Marshal Foch secured the victory of the Allies in World War I.

British prime minister Lloyd George, French prime minister Clemenceau, and US president Woodrow Wilson in Versailles for the signing of the peace treaty with Germany. Hitler later refused to accept the terms of the treaty, leading to World War II.

Attending the Paris peace conference at the Palace of Versailles in 1919, (from left to right) British prime minister David Lloyd-George, Italian prime minister Vittorio Orlando, French premier Georges Clémenceau and US president Woodrow Wilson. The peace treaty following the end of World War I was signed between the Allies and Germany on 28 June, mandating German disarmament and war reparations, and establishing the League of Nations. The USA made a separate treaty with Germany in 1921.

French radical politician, prime minister 1906-09 and 1917-20 when he chaired the Versailles peace conference but failed to secure the Rhine as a frontier for France in the treaty.

Elected mayor of Montmartre, Paris, in the war of 1870, and deputy for Montmartre 1876-93, Clémenceau's extreme radicalism and ferocious attacks on opponents earned him the nickname ‘the Tiger’. He was a prominent defender of Alfred Dreyfus through the daily paper La Justice, which he founded after losing his seat in 1893. Elected senator for Var from 1902, as interior and prime minister from 1906 he adopted a moderating stance in settling church-state relations, saw his attempt to introduce income tax defeated, but acted decisively to crush a series of strike movements in industry and agriculture. In 1917 his intervention secured the appointment of Marshal Foch as supreme commander of allied forces.