Paul Baudouin - Early Years

Early Years

Paul Baudouin was born into a wealthy family in Paris, and served as an artillery officer during The Great War in the French Army. In 1930 he became the Deputy Director and General Manager of the Bank of Indo-China. A "convinced Catholic", like many Catholics of the time he considered himself "non-political" although he had been a committed member of the militant nationalist movement Action Française. He had also been a Catholic Scout leader in the years just prior to World War II, and had written a notable exhortation to young Christians for the Revue de jeunes. He called for "the renaissance, in the humbler form of a layman's Order, of the chivalry of old times" to defend the spiritual patrimony of the Christian West.