He was a son of François Henri Marie Joseph Auguste de Chevigné and the former Gisèle Colas.
He was wounded on several occasions in 1940, managed to rejoin De Gaulle in London and was a colonel in the Free French Forces.
[3] After initial postings in Syria and Lebanon he was sent to Washington in 1942 as military attaché for the Free French.
[4] In 1954, he was wounded slightly by grenade fragments during a tour of the Indo-China fighting front while inspecting French troops that had landed in territory held by Communist Việt Minh rebels.
[5] Prime Minister Pflimlin served only briefly before the May 1958 crisis in France during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence which led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic and its replacement by the Fifth Republic led by Charles de Gaulle who returned to power after a twelve-year absence.