Early Life
Pierre Giffard's father was a lawyer and mayor in Fontaine-le-Dun. Pierre was taught from the age of six by Father Biville at Saint-Laurent-en-Caux and from eight at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen. He completed his schooling in Paris, at the Lycée Charlemagne in the Marais district. It was there that he developed his republican ideas.
The Franco-Prussian War started in 1870 and Giffard enrolled in the army, with his parents' reluctant permission, at Fontaine-le-Dun in Haute-Normandie. He joined the reserve army in November at Le Havre. There, following the custom of the time, he was made an officer. He became a lieutenant on 10 December 1870. At the end of the war he resumed his studies at Douai, where he gained a university degree in August 1871.
Giffard's father died on 1 August 1872, and Giffard moved to Paris to work as a journalist.
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