Jean Victor Allard

General Jean Victor Allard CC, CBE, GOQ, DSO & Two Bars, ED, CD (12 June 1913 – 23 April 1996) was the first French Canadian to become Chief of the Defence Staff, the highest position in the Canadian Forces, from 1966–1969. He was also the first to hold the accompanying rank of general.

Personal life

Allard was the only boy of seven children. His sisters were Anaïs, Judith, Thérèse, Marie, Irène and Madeleine. When he was seven years old, he and his sisters became orphans.

He proposed to his future wife, Simone Piché, on 11 November, and was married on 7 January 1939.

He and his wife had four children, Michèle, Jean, Andrée and Louis. Both sons died before reaching majority. Their daughters later married; Michèle married Jean Lajeunesse and had three children (Éric, France and Richard) and Andrée married Pierre Chénier and had four children (Martin, Andréane, Caroline and Jean-Olivier).

He retired to the city of Trois-Rivières, where he and Simone both lived out their days. Simone died on 24 April 1995. He died the following year, on 23 April 1996.

Victor Allard

Victor Allard (February 1, 1860 – June 3, 1931) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Quebec. He represented Berthier in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec from 1892 to 1897 as a Conservative.

He was born in Saint-Cuthbert, Canada East, the son of Prospère Allard and Geneviève Aurez Laférière, and was educated at the Collège de l'Assomption and the Université Laval. He articled with Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet, was called to the Quebec bar in 1884 and set up practice in Berthierville. In 1885, he married Blanche Dorval. Allard was mayor of Berthier from 1899 to 1903 and from 1912 to 1915. He was an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the Quebec assembly in 1890, losing to Cuthbert-Alphonse Chênevert. He defeated Chênevert in 1892 and then was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1897. Allard was an unsuccessful candidate again in an 1904 by-election. He was also defeated when he ran for a federal seat for Berthier in 1891 and 1908. In 1916, he was named to the Quebec Superior Court for Montreal district; he was named to the Court of King's Bench at Montreal in 1920. Allard died in Montreal at the age of 71.