Pierre Restaud

Pierre Restaud (born July 1860) is a French activist. The Deputy Director of the Societe des Amis de la Liberte, a Searoader organisation, he directs many of its operations from his base in Kingston.

Description
A gaunt, grim-looking man with a stubble beard, Restaud's face is scarred. Half his left ear is cut off, and another scar runs down his right cheek; he also has only three fingers on his left hand, with the ring and little fingers cut off.

Restaud is generally a soft-spoken man, with a taste for cheap rum and cigars. While he used to be known for having a hot temper, and for his readiness to get into brawls, age has mellowed him considerably - though not completely.

History
Born in Paris, the only child of intellectuals, Pierre lost his father in the political terror that followed the suppression of the Communards in 1871. His mother left Paris with him, settling in England, where Restaud graduated from the University of Leeds in 1882.

On the death of his mother in 1887, Restaud returned to France, where he resumed his political activism and eventually decided to focus on the abolitionist cause. In service of this, Restaud moved to Africa in 1895, where he worked to stamp out slavery in the French African territories and soon gained a reputation as a shrewd but hot-tempered operative who was not shy to use more direct means to free the enslaved.

This reputation eventually led to two attempts on his life which were responsible for his scars.

In 1901, Pierre returned to France briefly, but quickly set off with his family to Basse Terre, in the French West Indies, to continue the struggle against slavery against its greatest proponent - the Confederacy. In 1907, he was appointed as the Deputy Director. In his work, he has had considerable friction with his more passive superior, Claude-Etienne Bechet - a tension only ameliorated when Pierre agreed to be dispatched to Kingston in 1909.

Family
In 1886, Restaud met Alice Coulson (b. 1866), the daughter of a publican, in Leeds; her father did not approve the match, but he eloped with her to France the following year and married her. The two have three children, of whom two survived to adulthood.


 * 1) Jean-Marie Restaud (1888 - 1891), died of typhus
 * 2) Raymond Restaud (b. 1889)
 * 3) Jeanne Heloise Restaud (b. 1892)