[1] Henri-Auguste Lozé was born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis in the Nord department near the French border with Belgium.

[1] He studied law at Collège Sainte-Barbe and embarked on a career as a lawyer and public administrator that took in provincial postings that included deputy prefectures at Commercy, Béthune and Brest between 1877 and 1884.

The relationship between the Paris police and the general populace during his period of office was one of mutual disrespect and Lozé’s tenure did very little to change this perception although in 1890 there was a notable success in the discovery and destruction of a Russian nihilist plot to assassinate Alexander III of Russia.

[2] In April 1891, under orders from the Minister of the Interior, Lozé seized and destroyed hundreds of posters considered to be a violation of public decency.

[3][4] When in 1893 major riots broke out in Paris after a confrontation between a student called Nuger and a policeman that resulted in Nuger suffering a fatal wound, [note 1][5] there was widespread public concern that the governance of Paris and ultimately the French Republic was being endangered by the increasing public disorder in the Capital.