Modeste Legouez

Modeste Legouez (1908–1989) was a French farmer in Normandy and senator for Eure from 1959 to 1989.

Legouez was born September 24, 1908 in Épreville-près-le-Neubourg. He was a reasonably large farmer who inherited his farm from his parents in 1930.^[1] He started in politics by becoming the first president of the Jeunesses Paysannes, popularly known as the "Greenshirts", the youth section of Henri Dorgères' Comités de défense paysanne in the 1930s.^[2] He came within 700 votes^[3] of defeating the future prime minister Pierre Mendes France in the 1936 French legislative election^[4] in what Mendes France regarded as his hardest electoral fight.^[5]

Legouez became the head of the Peasant Corporation for the Eure^[6] from 1942 to 1944 for which he was interned for a few months after the liberation of France.^[1]

As a senator Legouez was a member of the Groupe de l'Union des Républicains et des Indépendants.^[1]

Legouez was a knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit. He died on January 30, 1989.