Elaine Kelly, 25 June 2026
Alumni News From Paris
Luke Geddes, Dux 2021 is currently doing a Masters in Neuroscience at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.
He likes to keep us up-to-date with his adventures there and this Tuesday Luke had the honour of attending a very important state event.
He was very lucky to go to Marc Bloch's Panthéonisation, the first ever French historian to be inducted into the Panthéon. A pantheonisation is the formal, highly prestigious process of interring or honoring an eminent citizen in the Panthéon in Paris, France. It is considered one of the highest secular honors the French Republic can bestow, recognizing individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the nation.
Marc Bloch is known as one of the greatest French historians in history. He co-founded the Annales School of History in 1929 with Lucien Febvre. The movement permanently changed how historians work, shifting the field away from kings and battles towards economics, society and everyday life. His influence is still taught in virtually every serious history progamme today.
He was also a hero of WWI and member of the French resistance during WWII, being executed by the Gestapo for being Jewish on the 16th of June 1944. He and his wife Simonne were inducted, by Emmanuel Macron, President of France, in front of the French nation and his grandchildren on Tuesday evening. Macron called him "A man of the Enlightenment who entered the army of shadows."
Luke is lucky enough to have a friend Benoît, a member of the French army who was given the honour of carrying Marc Bloch's casket to the Panthéon. What an amazing event to have been present at and what a great story for the grandkids!