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Decaen Charles Mathieu Isidore
(1769—1832)

Charles Decaen was born in Caen, in Normandy, France, on 13 April 1769. In 1791, during the French Revolutionary Wars, he joined the army and by a combination of courage, intelligence and ability rose quickly through the ranks. He came to the attention of Napoleon and in 1800, at the early age of 31, he was promoted to general.

In 1802, following the Peace of Amiens, Napoleon appointed Decaen captain-general of all the French territories in the Indian Ocean. The following year he sailed for Pondicherry, India where he intended to make his headquarters. However, before he could land, a despatch arrived from France informing him that war was likely to break out again, and ordering him to sail for the Ile de France (Mauritius) where he was to assume the governorship. He arrived there in August 1803 and immediately set about reorganising the island's administration.

In September he learned that France and England were again at war and three months later Matthew Flinders, unaware of this situation, put into the island to repair his leaking schooner, the Cumberland. Decaen arrested Flinders and kept him a prisoner on the island for more than six years. In December 1810 (six months after Flinders' release) Decaen capitulated to an invading British force and the Ile de France, re-named Mauritius, became a British possession.

After his return to France, Decaen was given command of an army in Spain which he led with some distinction. Napoleon created him a comte of the empire but when the emperor was banished to Elba, Decaen took service with Louis XVII. Upon Napoleon's return to power in 1814, Decaen once again switched allegiances only to be imprisoned following the French defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Eventually he was released and retired to his birthplace in Normandy where he died in 1832.

Mauritius, 2006, Charles Decaen