10 Facts About Hubert-Joseph Henry

Hubert-Joseph Henry was a French lieutenant-colonel in 1897 involved in the Dreyfus affair.

Hubert-Joseph Henry enlisted in the French Army as an infantryman in 1865.

In 1875 Hubert-Joseph Henry was appointed as an aide to General Joseph de Miribel, Chief of the General Staff.

Hubert-Joseph Henry subsequently served in Tunisia, Tonkin and Algeria before returning to counter-intelligence duties in Paris.

Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, appointed new chief of army's intelligence section in 1895, was convinced that Major Hubert-Joseph Henry had forged a document in order to prove definitively that Alfred Dreyfus was a traitor and German spy.

Thanks to the general staff's and government's support, Hubert-Joseph Henry was promoted Lieutenant Colonel, whereas Picquart was initially removed from office, the army, and even arrested.

Cuignet soon learned that the most damning evidence brought to the court in 1896 by Hubert-Joseph Henry was in fact a forgery using two separate documents, later known as the "faux Hubert-Joseph Henry," to achieve the sentence he and his supporters desired.

Hubert-Joseph Henry was sent to the military prison at Fort Mont-Valerien.

Hubert-Joseph Henry was found dead in his cell on the morning of 31 August 1898, having died at some point the previous night.

At first, anti-Dreyfusards such as Edouard Drumont and Henri Rochefort, upon hearing of Hubert-Joseph Henry's suicide, felt as though it was as good as declaring the guilt of a forged document and therefore Dreyfus' innocence to the people of France.