Eugène II Schneider

Early life

Eugène Schneider was born on October 29, 1868, in Le Creusot, in Burgundy (France). His father, Henri Schneider, was a businessman and politician. His paternal grandfather, Eugène Schneider, was the co-founder of Schneider et Compagnie with his grand-uncle Adolphe Schneider in 1836. He grew up at the Château de la Verrerie in Le Creusot.

Schneider was appointed as co-chairman of Schneider et Compagnie in 1896. He became its sole chairman in 1898. The company dominated the steel and armaments sector of France and much of central Europe.

He served on the boards of directors of the Crédit Lyonnais, Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, the Société Métallurgique de Normandie and the Banque de l'Union Parisienne. He also served as the chairman of the Union Européenne Industrielle et Financière.

He joined the Popular Liberal Action, a center-right political party. He served as a member of the French Chamber of Deputies for them from 1889 to 1910. He also served as the mayor of Le Creusot from 1896 to 1900. He was a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

In 1917 he accepted the presidency of the British Iron and Steel Institute, a position he occupied for 2 years. In 1919 he was sent on a mission to America by the French government and whilst there was awarded the Gold Medal of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America. In 1922, the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) awarded him the John Fritz Medal. In 1930 he was awarded, like his father in 1889, the Bessemer Gold Medal for services to the steel industry.

He died in Paris in 1942, only weeks after the Le Creusot factory was demolished by the RAF in World War II.

He married Antoinette de Rafélis de Saint-Sauveur, an heiress to the Château d'Apremont-sur-Allier. They had three sons: Henri-Paul, Jean and Charles, and a daughter, Marie-Zélie, also known as May, who became the Duchess of Brissac by marriage.

He died in Paris on November 17, 1942.