Gaston Cros

Colonel Marie Augstin Gaston Cros was a French army officer and archaeologist. He was born in Alsace and was displaced when that territory was incorporated into the German Empire. He joined the French Army as a lieutenant and saw action in Tonkin before spending several years surveying in Tunisia, receiving the honours of membership of Vietnamese and Tunisian orders and appointment as a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1901 Cros was appointed head of the French archaeological expedition to Girsu, Iraq to continue the work of Ernest de Sarzec. His work over the next five years included the tracing of the 32.5 feet thick city wall and for his work there received a letter of commendation from Gaston Doumergue, the Minister of Fine Arts, and the award of the Golden Palms of the Ordre des Palmes Acadmiques. Promoted to lieutenantcolonel, Cros served in the French protectorate of Morocco from 1913, seeing action in the Zaian War.

Marie Augstin Gaston Cros was born at 2.00am onOctober 1861 to Hippolyte Cros, a lawyer, and Marie Petronille Reine Scherb at Saverne, BasRhin in the Alsace region. After Alsace was incorporated into the German Empire after the FrancoPrussian War of 1871 Cros family chose to retain their French nationality and moved to Lunville in MeurtheetMoselle. Cros volunteered for a fiveyear commission with the French Army onOctober 1881 at Nancy. Four days later he was enrolled into the Ecole Spciale Militaire de SaintCyr as a cadet, from which he graduated onOctober 1883, ranked 261 out of 342 in his class. Cros was commissioned into the 128th Infantry Regiment as a sublieutenant and attended the LEcole du Tir in 1885 where he ranked 25th out of 76 participants.

Source: Wikipedia