20 Facts About Pierre Gilliard

Pierre Gilliard was a Swiss academic and author, best known as the French language tutor to the five children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia from 1905 to 1918.

Pierre Gilliard was born on 16 May 1879 in Fiez, Switzerland.

Pierre Gilliard was recommended as a French tutor to the Tsar's children and began teaching the elder children, Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia in 1905.

Pierre Gilliard grew fond of the family and followed them into internal exile at Tobolsk, Siberia, following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The Bolsheviks prevented Pierre Gilliard from joining his pupils when they were moved to the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg in May 1918.

Pierre Gilliard described his final view of the children in his memoirs:.

Pierre Gilliard remained in Siberia after the murders of the family, for a time assisting White Movement investigator Nicholas Sokolov.

Pierre Gilliard married Alexandra "Shura" Tegleva, who had been a nurse to Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, in 1919.

For over a year Pierre Gilliard was in the service of General Maurice Janin, the commander of the French military mission during the Russian Civil War, until early November 1919 when along with thousands of others, including ministers and government officials of the old regime, he fled Omsk and headed east on the Trans-Siberian railway.

Pierre Gilliard then took an American ship to San Francisco, and from there travelled by ship along the Pacific coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea to Trieste.

Pierre Gilliard travelled through Italy to Switzerland, and in August 1920 he reached his parents' home in Fiez, which he had left 16 years before.

Pierre Gilliard became a French professor at the University of Lausanne and was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

Madame Pierre Gilliard asked to examine Anderson's feet, and noted that Anderson's feet were shaped similarly to Anastasia's: both had bunions.

Pierre Gilliard insisted that Anderson be moved to a better hospital, to ensure her survival while her identity was investigated.

Pierre Gilliard was appalled to find out that Mrs Rathlef would take his corrections of these "memories" and then publish the corrected version.

Subsequent investigation by Pierre Gilliard demonstrated that the woman had learned her extensive knowledge about the Imperial Family through living two years in Russian noble society in Berlin.

Anderson's supporters accused Pierre Gilliard of turning his back on her because he was paid off by the Tsarina's brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse.

Pierre Gilliard wrote articles and a book titled The False Anastasia, which claimed she was a "vulgar adventuress" and a "first-rate actress".

Pierre Gilliard said that he had known at once that she was not Anastasia, there was no facial resemblance, her entire knowledge of Russian imperial life was gleaned from magazines, books, and her friends, and she could not speak Russian, English or French.

In 1958, Pierre Gilliard was severely injured in a car accident in Lausanne.