[3] His father was Julien-Victor-Albert Tirman (1800–1862), a doctor and politician, member of the Higher Committee of Public Instruction and the Board of Administration of the Hospice de Mézières.

His cousin Jules Riché(fr) was a Bonapartist deputy from 1852 to 1860, then a member of the Council of State until the end of the Second Empire.

[3] During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, after the fall of the Second French Empire Gambetta named him Prefect of Ardennes on 10 September 1870.

The Ardennes were soon fully occupied, but Tirman managed to deploy some troops who put up a courageous resistance.

At this time Algeria was considered a detached part of France rather than a colony, and was administered by a civilian governor.

His achievements in Algeria included creation of many centers of French colonization, construction of roads and railways, houses and schools.

[7] In 1884 Tirman reasserted that despite the annexation of the M'zab in 1882, the agreement of 1853 that granted internal autonomy remained in force.

[9] Tirman observed that "Since we no longer have the hope of increasing the French population by means of official colonization, we must seek the remedy in the naturalization of foreigners.

"[10] On 30 September 1884 Tirman submitted a draft law to the government developed by the Algiers School of Law that proposed to confer French citizenship on any individual born in the colony to foreign parents unless they decided to retain their parent's nationality in the year after obtaining their majority.

[10] It was not until 1889 that a law was adopted giving the right of citizenship to children of foreigners, causing an immediate increase in the number of French citizens in Algeria.

[1] Alexandre Isaac issued a report on 15 March 1898 in which he asked the Algerian committee to end the system of attachment that Albert Grévy(fr) had started in 1881, and that had been expanded by Louis Tirman between then and 1891.

He was active in the discussion of the report presented by Émile Combes on behalf of the commission to examine legal and administrative changes related to Muslim higher education, and in the debate over Algerian land ownership.

[1] Louis Tirman died in office at the age of 62 on 2 August 1899 at the Château des Taboureaux near La Ferté-Loupière, Yonne.