To Napoleon Foch and Sophie Dupre
were born four children, a daughter and three sons, and the second son
was christened Ferdinand. The father at this time had entered the
French civil service, and in 1851, when Ferdinand was born, was at
Tarbes in the Upper Pyrenees, as secretary of the prefecture.
The family name of Foch does not sound French, and as pronounced in
Gascony with a hard guttural sound it is more like German. It would
seem to indicate that in an earlier day the ancestors had lived on the
Rhine. Up in northern France they have softened the name to sound like
"Fush." The meaning of the name is said to be "Fire"--and certainly
the Germans kindled a greater fire than they could quench, when their
invasion produced the quiet leader with this flaming name.
Napoleon Foch did not rise very high in his official positions. His
work was chiefly clerical and caused him to remove from one town to
another. He did not want to lose sight of his boys, by placing them in
an academy, but kept them with him, placing them in first one public
school and then another, as he was compelled to move. The first school
that Ferdinand attended was the old college at Tarbes, where he
remained until ten or eleven years old. The family home at Valentine,
in the country, was always visited in the summer and other holiday
seasons, and here the youngsters had many a romp.
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