6ème Bureau de Recrutement de la Seine to Marcel Proust [shortly before 7 July 1915]

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Military Service

Monsieur Valentin Proust^[1] 102 boulevard Haussmann Paris

^[2]

6e Bureau de Recrutement de la Seine

No. 20

Name: Proust Valentin

Summons before the Special Discharge Commission held at 6e Bureau de Recrutement, Porte Champerret, Paris 17e, 7 July 1915 at 14:00

^[3] ^[4]

Notes

↑ In Marcel Proust's military service record (Archives de Paris, la Seine matriculation registers and military recruitment register) his forenames are written in the same sequence as his baptism: "Valentin, Louis, Georges, Eugène, Marcel", the tradition being that the familiar first name was the one placed last. But some years after Proust's birth the custom changed and the familiar first name was on the contrary put first (which indeed was the case with his brother Robert, born two years after him: "Robert, Sigismond, Léon"). The men called up in 1914 and 1915 being mostly young men, the officials from the recruitment offices probably did not think that Marcel Proust came from the generation where the familiar first name was placed last. [FP, FL]
↑ [Shortly before 7 July 1915] this summons being neither dated nor signed, and the card carrying no postmark, we can no longer date it any more accurately. Proust had received a first summons to appear before the Examining Board in April 1915: kept with an envelope carrying a postmark of Thursday 8 April, this first summons requested that he attend Tuesday 13 April at 03:30 AM (CP 02930; Kolb, XIV, no. 41), a second summons carrying a postmark of Saturday 10 April 1915 (CP 05643) came two days later to cancel the previous one and correct the time of the summons to 08:30. Having succeeded, by producing a medical certificate (CP 05640) in having himself exempted from attending the Discharge Board on 13 April 1915, Proust knew that he would be summoned again or visited at home by the Army medical officers. - He makes several references to this summons before the Special Discharge Commission in his letters from the start of July 1915: see for example to Robert de Montesquiou, CP 02969 (Kolb; XIV, no. 80). [FP, FL]
↑ Translation notes:
↑ Contributors: Yorktaylors.

[n1-1] In Marcel Proust's military service record (Archives de Paris, la Seine matriculation registers and military recruitment register) his forenames are written in the same sequence as his baptism: "Valentin, Louis, Georges, Eugène, Marcel", the tradition being that the familiar first name was the one placed last. But some years after Proust's birth the custom changed and the familiar first name was on the contrary put first (which indeed was the case with his brother Robert, born two years after him: "Robert, Sigismond, Léon"). The men called up in 1914 and 1915 being mostly young men, the officials from the recruitment offices probably did not think that Marcel Proust came from the generation where the familiar first name was placed last. [FP, FL]

[n2-2] [Shortly before 7 July 1915] this summons being neither dated nor signed, and the card carrying no postmark, we can no longer date it any more accurately. Proust had received a first summons to appear before the Examining Board in April 1915: kept with an envelope carrying a postmark of Thursday 8 April, this first summons requested that he attend Tuesday 13 April at 03:30 AM (CP 02930; Kolb, XIV, no. 41), a second summons carrying a postmark of Saturday 10 April 1915 (CP 05643) came two days later to cancel the previous one and correct the time of the summons to 08:30. Having succeeded, by producing a medical certificate (CP 05640) in having himself exempted from attending the Discharge Board on 13 April 1915, Proust knew that he would be summoned again or visited at home by the Army medical officers. - He makes several references to this summons before the Special Discharge Commission in his letters from the start of July 1915: see for example to Robert de Montesquiou, CP 02969 (Kolb; XIV, no. 80). [FP, FL]

[n3-3] Translation notes:

[n4-4] Contributors: Yorktaylors.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

CP 05642/en

6ème Bureau de Recrutement de la Seine to Marcel Proust [shortly before 7 July 1915]

Notes

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