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Béatrix Excoffon, born Julia Euvrie or Œuvrie (10 July 1849 - 30 December 1916) was a militant communard who served as an ambulance nurse during the Paris Commune in 1871.[1] She was vice-president of the Club des Femmes de la Boule Noire, and was known as "the republican".[2]
Excoffon was born in Cherbourg on 10 July 1849.[3] In 1870, she was living in Paris with her partner, François, a printer. They had two children.[1]
In La Commune, Louise Michel relates that Sophie Poirier, Blin, and Excoffon asked her to join them in creating the Comité de vigilance de Montmartre.[4] That committee then organized the Club des Femmes de la Boule Noire, and Excoffon became its vice-president. Sophie Poirier became its president.[2] She requisitioned an apartment at 32 rue des Acacias in Paris, where she lived, for the use of the Vigilance Committee.[3]
At a meeting of the club of the Salle Ragache at the beginning of April, she said, "there are enough of us to attend to the wounded."[5] On 3 April 1871, Excoffon took part in a women's march to Versailles, where the National Assembly was located, reminiscent of the march of October 1789.[1] Excoffon set up a mobile ambulance at Fort d'Issy for the Enfants-Perdus for a fortnight.[6] Excoffon's ambulance[7][1] was joined by Alix Payen, who first became an ambulance nurse on the day her husband was wounded in the eye.[8]
During Bloody Week, when the Versailles troops entered Paris, Excoffon defended place Blanche at the barricades on 23 May 1871[1] along with Élisabeth Dmitrieff, Nathalie Lemel, Blanche Lefebvre, and Malvina Poulain, also an ambulance nurse.[9] 120 women delayed General Clinchant's troops before retreating, exhausted and low on ammunition, to place Pigalle.[10][11]
After the end of the Commune, she was detained at Satory,[3] along with Louise Michel.[12] The 4th Court Martial condemned her to deportation to a fortress on 13 October 1871.[1] She was then imprisoned in Auberive.[3][13] Louise Michel asked Victor Hugo to intervene on her behalf, since her parents and brother-in-law had died recently.[13] Her sentence was reduced to ten years of imprisonment on 28 March 1872, and reduced further by one year on 15 August 1876.[3] Finally, Excoffon made an act of submission and her sentence was commuted, resulting in her release on 26 November 1878.[12][1]
Excoffon and her partner married on 5 September 1874.[1]
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