Jean-Marie Georges Girard de Soubeyran

Raised to the rank of officer of the Légion d’honneur, he was made deputy governor of the Crédit Foncier de France in 1860 and was the same year elected mayor of Morthemer after having tried out politics as conseiller général of the canton of Saint-Julien-l'Ars (1855–1892).

He bought the daily newspaper Le Soir (founded in 1869 by the banker Merton) in 1873 and imposed a more conservative editorial line on it.

Re-elected on the chamber's dissolution in 1877, he sat on the side of the Bonapartists and voted against one government initiative of the Third Republic after another, notably those on economic and colonial questions.

In 1878, he was relieved of his role at the Crédit Foncier de France and so decided to profit from his fortune and concentrate on enlarging his business affairs as the carrier of Normandoux at Tercé, which he had acquired in 1869.

He created the Banque d'Escompte de Paris as well as various other financial and insurance companies, and he heavily restored the château and church at Morthemer.