Henri Chazé

His father, Eugène Davoust, was an anarchist railway worker active in his union.

When Henri was six, his father participated in a major strike by railway workers for weekly rest periods and a better pension.

The family was thrown on hard times and survived by his mother making corsets.

[1] His father was also an ardent freemason, as were his grandfather and brother, all affiliated to the Grand Orient of France.

However, Henri found the initiation rituals degrading and the environment an example of the sort of organisation where men drawn from all sorts of classes would mix, creating opportunities for both the socially ambitious and spies of the Deuxième Bureau.