Lieutenant Philippe Marie-Claude Adolphe Francis de Coudekerque DUCLOS

(also recorded as Philip Francis DUCLOS)


Philippe Duclos was born in Paris on 29 January 1923 but took the British nationality of his Mauritian parents, Joseph Adolphe Duclos KC and Marie Louis Angèle Duclos (née Maingard) and returned with them to Mauritius when he was just a few months old.  In addition to being a leading lawyer, Duclos’ father was a noted politician in Mauritius, being a member of the government and jointly leading a movement that opposed those, chiefly his fellow Franco-Mauritians, who wished to re-establish ties with France, Mauritius having been seized as a colony by the British from the French in 1810.  Joseph Duclos instead urged allegiance with Britain and development of links with the markets available both there and in British India.  He also promoted the creation of a distinct Mauritian identity and patriotism, expounded in his book ‘L’évolution Nationale Mauricienne’, published a year after his son’s birth, and he believed that Britain, rather than France, would be the best supporter for moving towards such a distinct identity.  Joseph Duclos’ first marriage foundered and he re-married to a Frenchwoman, (Marie Felicité) Nicole Lambrecht de Conderkerque.  From 1931 Philippe’s father and stepmother returned to live in Paris, but his father died there in 1933 when Philippe (the only son- tbc) was just ten years old.  While he continued his education, Philippe stayed with an aunt in Paris close to his school, but joined his step-mother in living with his grandmother in Fontainbleau (6 rue des Basses Loges, Avon) at weekends.........[Remainder of case study is complete - contact author for further details].


Copyright reserved © Paul McCue 2015.