He joined the army at the age of twenty, and after serving for two years was sentenced to a few days in prison for a minor offence.

[2] He was a trade union activist, and played a major role in the strike of metro workers at the end of 1905.

On returning to Romainville he was arrested and completed his sentence, which was reduced to ten months in the Petite Roquette prison.

[2] Early in the morning of 2 July 1909 Aernoult was put to work moving wheelbarrow loads of sand.

[3] Émile Rousset, who had been a companion of Aernoult at the disciplinary camp, wrote a letter to the newspaper Le Matin describing what he had witnessed.

On 19 January 1910 Rousset was found guilty of both charges and on 2 February 1910 he was sentenced to five years hard labor.

[1] They used the trial as a public stage to parade witnesses who testified to the brutality and injustice of the military system.

On 11 February 1912 Aernoult's body, repatriated by a public subscription organized by L'Humanité, was taken to the columbarium of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.