Octave Meynier

Octave Meynier was a French military officer, born on 22 February 1874 at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in France and died on 31 May 1961 at Algiers.

Only a few days later a mutiny among the troops resulted in Voulet's and Chanoine's deaths, and Meynier joined Paul Joalland in command of the expedition.

Under Meynier and Joalland the expedition completed its main goal, the union of French West African possessions.

[citation needed] During the battle of Verdun, he assumed command of the 1st Regiment of Algerian Tirailleurs, and was wounded on 5 April 1918 by a shell that took away his left arm.

After the war he returned to Africa as head of the military staff of the governor-general of Algeria, Maurice Viollette; from 1926 to 1934 he held the position of Director of the Territories (Saharan Algeria), and was given the opportunity to realize the web of routes covering the Sahara he had first thought of in 1914.