lit a candle 2h agoDidn't know much about him until I read the piece on Setif, 1945. Credit where it's due, not every diplomat says the hard thing out loud.
Their story
Hubert Colin de Verdiere was a French career diplomat who served twice as France's ambassador to Algeria, represented his country in Abu Dhabi, Tehran and Moscow, and was Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2004. He died on 2 October 2026, aged 84. He was…
Hubert Colin de Verdiere was a French career diplomat who served twice as France's ambassador to Algeria, represented his country in Abu Dhabi, Tehran and Moscow, and was Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2002 to 2004. He died on 2 October 2026, aged 84.
He was born on 31 October 1941 in Roubaix, in the Nord department. He studied at the Ecole nationale d'administration, graduating with the Robespierre class of 1968 to 1970, and entered the foreign service as secretary of foreign affairs on 1 June 1970. After a brief secondment to the Ministry of Public Health, he joined the ministry's economic and financial affairs directorate.
His postings abroad began in Canberra, where he was first secretary from 1973 to 1975. He then went to Algiers, serving as first secretary and later second counsellor until 1979, the start of a connection with Algeria that would shape his career. Back in Paris he worked on North Africa and the Middle East, then served in Madrid as second and later first counsellor from 1983 to 1987.
He became an ambassador in 1987, first to the United Arab Emirates and then, from 1991 to 1994, to Iran. In Paris he directed the ministry's department for the United Nations and international organisations and in 1995 became chief of staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In September 1996 he was named ambassador to Russia, also accredited to Tajikistan from early 1997.
In 2000 he returned to Algiers as ambassador and high representative. From 2002 to 2004 he ran the French diplomatic service as Secretary General of the Quai d'Orsay, and in 2003 he was raised to the dignity of Ambassador of France, a rank reserved for a small number of senior diplomats. He went back to Algiers for a second term from 2004 to 2006, making him one of the very few French diplomats to lead the embassy there twice. In May 2005 he described the massacres of 8 May 1945 at Setif, Guelma and Kherrata as an inexcusable tragedy, the first French ambassador in Algiers to use those words publicly, a statement still cited in debates over the shared memory of the two countries.
He was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2006 and was an Officer of the National Order of Merit. His death on 2 October 2026 was reported by the Algerian press, and his funeral was set for 9 October in a village in the Hautes Pyrenees, according to his family.
Biography adapted from English and French Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); Casbah Tribune death report (October 2026); Les Echos (2004).
Photos
1Hubert Colin de Verdière as French ambassador in Moscow, July 1996
by People Forever
