Saint-Charles shaft

Charles Cazalet, born June 22, 1858 in Cenon (Gironde) and died January 18, 1933 in Bordeaux, was president of the Union des sociétés de gymnastique de France from 1896 to 1931 and of the Fédération internationale de gymnastique from 1924 to 1933. Son of a Protestant family of Bordeaux wine merchants, he worked in the family business after completing his studies at the Lycée de Bordeaux. A philanthropic businessman, he initiated a number of social measures and created the first neighborhood gymnastics association. Elected to the Bordeaux city council, he took advantage of this mandate to innovate by creating popular shower-baths, low-cost housing and allotments. Then, without neglecting his professional commitments, he devoted himself more specifically to the development of gymnastics. President of the Union des sociétés de gymnastique de France in 1897, he held this position for 34 years, adding in 1924 the presidency of the new International Gymnastics Federation, which he held until his death in 1933.

Biography

Charles Cazalet, a major figure in Bordeaux, is intimately linked to the city's life at the beginning of the 20th century. He was born in Cenon1 on June 22, 1858 into a Protestant family of wine merchants. Married in 1885 to Alice HauchecorneC 1, he had three children, including a son killed in the First World War on September 3, 1916.

Professional and civic commitments

After studying at the Lycée de Bordeaux, he began assisting his father in 1878, introducing a profit-sharing scheme for employeesC 1. In 1881, he became secretary of the Chambre syndicale du commerce en gros des vins et spiritueux de la Gironde. A true social patron, his convictions led him to found and preside over the La Bastidienne gymnastics society in 1884, to invigorate the neighborhood of his neighbors and employees. In 1887, he took over the management of the family businessC 2. In 1893, he founded and chaired the Société anonyme du pont à transbordeur de Bordeaux. In 1908, he chaired the Syndicat général du commerce d'importation et d'exportation de Bordeaux, the Comité régional des conseillers du commerce extérieur and was vice-president of the Comité nationalC 3.

Married in 1889, he also became involved in social issues, helping his young wife to found the La Bastide crèche in 18912, the same year he organized a public heating system for the underprivileged during a particularly harsh winterC 1. Elected to the Bordeaux city council and deputy mayor from 1892 to 1896C 4, he made a considerable contribution to improving the situation of his fellow citizens. On April 13, 1892, he was responsible for setting up the Œuvre bordelaise des bains-douches à bon marchéC 5 (Bordeaux low-cost shower-baths charity), chaired by the mayor of Bordeaux and of which he himself was general secretary. This was the starting point for the public shower-bath establishments invented some time earlier for prisons3. From 1899 onwards, he imported them to the capital, from where they spread to other cities4.

On the following December 28, he founded the Société bordelaise des habitations à bon marchéC 6, which expanded rapidly from 1902 onwards. Although he gave up his municipal duties in 1896C 4, perhaps disillusioned with political life, he remained faithful to his social and civic commitments right to the end. In 1905 he founded the Œuvre bordelaise des jardins ouvriers and in 1911 the Société de crédit immobilier de GirondeC 7. The same year, he joined the Board of Governors of the Ligue de l'enseignement. In 1918, he created the Banque Populaire de la Gironde, and in 1927 opened the Clinique de La BastideC 8. According to Jean-Paul Callède, “Cazalet is unquestionably one of the Bordeaux personalities who contributed most to the evolution of local society under the Third Republic ”5. However, Cazalet's fame extended beyond the city and its major achievements, for from 1896 to 1931, he acquired a national dimension by becoming president of the Union des sociétés de gymnastique de France (USGF), which he transformed from a patriotic educational organization into a sports organization.

In 1929, Maison Cazalet et fils was hit hard by the economic crisis, and Charles Cazalet, affected by the death of his wife, relinquished the main responsibilities he had held until thenC 9.

Republic gymnastics

Indeed, gymnastics was to be the best means of expressing his commitments. In 1873, his parents enrolled him in the Bordeaux Gymnastics Society, where he was a student instructor in 1878 and a member of the board of directors in 1881. In 1884, he founded and chaired La Bastidienne, Bordeaux's first popular gymnastics society. The following year, he helped organize the XIth Fête Fédérale in BordeauxC 10: to this end, his Bordeaux friend Daniel MerillonN 1 had been elected President of the USGF at the Fête Fédérale in Amiens the previous year. Cazalet also set up the first instructors' course in Bordeaux. In 1890, he was rapporteur for the finance committee of the USGFC 1, whose presidency and board changed with each federal festival. At the 1893 Congrès de l'éducation physique, he spoke in defense of gymnastics and the gamesC 11.

In 1894, La Bastidienne inaugurated its new gymnasium in the presence of Joseph Sansboeuf, and the following year, Cazalet again became rapporteur for the USGFC 11 finance committee. He was elected president in 1897, after helping to revise the statutes. Up until the dawn of the 20th century, the USGF was primarily a think-tank whose steering committee boasted the scientific, political, literary and media luminaries of the day. Proud of the organization of its major federal festivities since 1875, it nevertheless remained reserved, to say the least, with regard to sporting competition per se, in line with the positions of the European board chaired by the Belgian Cupérus. As a result, only one French gymnast took part in the gymnastics tournament at the Athens Olympic Games in 1896. Charles Cazalet took over the presidency a year later, a position he held until 1931L 1.