Arsène Mathurin Louis Marie Lambert was born at four in the morning[4] in Carhaix (Finistère) in the far north-west of France.

[4][5] His mother, born Joséphine Maillet, is identified as the owner of a piece of land at Saint-Joseph on the island département of Réunion, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

[2] Back in Europe, responding to a characteristically devious provocation from Chancellor Bismarck, the French parliament voted to declare war against Prussia on 19 July 1870.

By this time Lambert was serving with the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment ("2e Régiment d'Infanterie de Marine") which formed part of the so-called Blue Division which in a series of savage engagements during the wider Battle of Sedan captured and then recaptured Bazeilles from I Royal Bavarian Corps under the command of General von der Thann.

[8] With a handful of men Lambert was given the task of organising the defence of the Rougerie Inn which had become a key focus of the fighting and which later became a little museum known as the House of the Last Cartridge ("Maison de la dernière cartouche").

[6] The award ceremony took place on 14 September 1871: the honour was physically handed over by his former military commander, General Élie de Vassoigne who had already, in May of the previous year, attended and signed off at Lambert's marriage as a witness.

[6] Despite the immediate recognition of Arsène Lambert's heroic contributions during the Franco-Prussian War and the rapid termination of the commune experiment, the French Third Republic was born out of military defeat.

[2] Five years later, and having become known as a committed supporter of the Republican establishment despite having spent the first part of his career serving the Empire, he became a Brigadier general (général de brigade) at the end of 1888 (or, according to some sources, during 1890[8]) and, in around 1890, "commandant militaire du Sénat".

[1] By 1892 (when he was a witness at a marriage) he was giving his domicile as Quimper,[12] where he was given charge of an infantry brigade ("130e régiment d’infanterie de ligne").

[1] Despite a developing arms race among the principal military powers of Europe and continuing colonising activity, both in Africa and further afield, on the home front the 1890s was essentially a decade of peace, coupled with social and economic progress.