Monsabert, Joseph de Goislard de, born in Libourne 
on 30-09-1887, to Charles de Goislard de Monsabert 1848-1925 Lieutenant Colonel and his wife Marthe Marie Justine Ramet, born 1854, graduated from Saint-Cyr military academy and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1911. He on 17-07-1919, married Marie Madeleine Léonie Isabelle Leconte in Alger, Algérie, and his siblings were, Jean Marie Joseph Arthur de Goislard de Monsabert, 1880-1965, Magdeleine de Goislard de Monsabert, 1881-1947, Louis de Goislard de Monsabert, 1883-1883, André de Goislard de Monsabert, 1885-1896, Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert, 1887-1981, Goislard de Goislard de Monsabert, Marie-Jeanne de Goislard de Monsabert, 1890-1936 and Marie de Goislard de Monsabert 1893-1893. Four sons and three daughters.
He initially served with the 44th Infantry Regiment and then was moved to the 3rd Moroccan Rifle Regiment, with which he first saw combat in 1912. Assigned to the 1st Mixed Rifle and Zouaves Regiment 
and then the 9th Zouaves March Regiment in the First World War, he finished the war at the head of a battalion and as a holder of the Legion of Honor. 
Promoted to Colonel in 1937, he was made a Brigadier in August 1941. This promotion was followed by promotion to Major General in March 1943. He was promoted again to Lieutenant General in August 1944, and then to General in September 1946. 
Monsabert commanded first the Corps Franc d’Afrique and then the reserve elements of the XIX Corps (France) during the campaign for Tunisia.
Subsequently, he commanded the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division 
with the French Expeditionary Corps in the Italian Campaign. On 03-07-1944 his forces liberated Siena. To an artillery officer who was complaining about the sheer number of valuable monuments that were cluttering the maps, he issued the instruction “tirez où vous voulez, mais si vous tirez en-deçà du XVIIIeme siècle, on vous fera fusiller!” (Fire where you wish, but if you fire on anything before the 18th century we’ll get you shot!).
On 31 August 1944, Monsabert took command of the French II Corps of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny’s Army B,
later renamed the French First Army. 
Monsabert led the II Corps 
with distinction for the remainder of the war in Europe. Monsabert, with about 130000 soldiers took Toulon and Marseille and played an active part in Alsace with a corps numbering nearly 150000 soldiers at that time. He then fought in Germany.
In July 1945, he was made the commander of French forces in Germany. In 1946, he retired from active military service. From 1951 until 1955, Monsabert served as a deputy in the Rassemblement du Peuple Français political party 
in the National Assembly of France, representing the region Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Death and burial ground of Monsabert, Joseph de Goislard de.
General Joseph de Goislard Monsabert, companion of the Liberation, died Saturday, 13-06-1981, in Dax (Landes), at the age of ninety-four years. His funeral was held Thursday, June 18, at 16 hours, in the church Saint-Bruno, Bordeaux. General de Monsabert, who was a Gaullist
deputy under the Fourth Republic, played a decisive role in the liberation of France during the Second World War. 
He is buried at the cimetière La Chartreuse in BORDEAUX.
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