Basile-Paul Mirat (born January 24, 1885 – July 6, 1966) was an owner of a thoroughbred stud farm, military instructor in the United States, president of the Chamber of Agriculture of the Basses-Pyrénées, journalist and mayor of Meillon.

Around 1830, Paul's grandfather, Jean Mirat (1817-1893), owned the auberge "Relais de la Poste" and raised remount horses.

The youngest sibling, Jean Mirat (1899-1959), was Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, doctor of law, barrister for the Paris Court of Appeal, member and designated president of the French Bar, recipient of the Horace Helbronner prize (1925), and author of L’obligation alimentaire entre époux en cas de divorce (1930) (Maintenance Obligations Between Spouses in the Event of Divorce (1930)).

[5]In 1898, disciplined and expelled from high school at Pau, Paul Mirat was sent to Paris to continue his studies at the Collège Stanislas, joining his brother Gaston, who had been a medical student.

Horse racing, the Pau Hunt, the aviation school founded by the Wright brothers, the English Club, the "Palais Beaumont", the "Pavillon des Arts" attracted the budding young artist who sketched foreigners on vacation, and also local daily life.

His India ink caricatures were published in the local press, immortalizing the winter colony during the Belle Époque, as well as teams of horses, mail-coaches, tilburies, fiacres, Victorias, landaus, and early automobiles.

In 1906, freed from military obligations, Paul Mirat went to Mexico where his uncle Maurice Lacaze, a polytechnician, was responsible for railway security in Veracruz.

He carried out many perilous missions in unison with British troops, enabling him to demonstrate the finest military qualities and earning him a "citation à l'ordre" of the brigade.

The French moved to quickly instruct around 40,000 men, along with a British delegation in charge of trench training, chemical warfare and the use of machine guns.

""It was cold last winter, colder than usual, and the mud froze to our bodies, and as we floundered back and forth in the snow and sleet of the night the "Boche" shells scattered steel death in our midst.

In July 1918, barely landed back in France, this unit engaged in the offensive while Paul Mirat participated in several Freikorps missions with the 156th French Infantry Division.

[10] They had four children, Jacques (1919-1993), Claude (1920-1930), Yves (1931-1995) and Michel (1928-2015) and settled in Meillon where Paul took over his father's stables, successfully horseracing at several tracks throughout France.

On October 3, 1928, Pau's Dutournier bank declared insolvency, ruining Paul Mirat, whose furniture, paintings, bronzes and books sold at auction in the courtyard of his stables while the family played bridge in the garden.

[12][13] In March 1933, he joined the editorial staff of the weekly "Vu" founded by Lucien Vogel and signed onto an investigation into the rise of fascism in Italy.

It's the beauteous season Around my house When upon the swallows’ return I hear their joyous cry, their flapping wings Coming fearless To nest under my old roof.

In April 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, he carried out a mission in Irun to negotiate the exchange of the imprisoned aviator Pelletier, noting, "I recognize those gazes where the past is extinguished, where the present becomes a tragic reality, where the future lights the imprecise flame of possible hopes...

[16] When the first Spanish Civil War refugees crossed the border, the Mirats immediately opened their home and urged every family in Meillon to do the same.

Most tried to leave France, some obtaining visas for the United States or Cuba, others were able to escape thanks to organizations, such as the Œuvre de secours aux enfants (Children's Aid Society), abbreviated "OSE".