Fabrique de Bérets Basques et Alpins

Another Basque beret factory, far from the Basque Country.

In 1913, the brothers Auguste and Eugène Groll set up a mechanical embroidery factory on 17 - 21 rue du Labeur in Saint-Quentin operating under the company name Groll Jeunes.

In 1914, the mechanical embroidery factory employed about ten employees, 20 to 30 embroiderers (at home), 15 to 20 cutters and finishers.

Aerial view of the site in 1989 

In 1928, the Groll brothers converted the embroidery factory into a hat factory, specializing in the manufacturing of berets. The new company, called the "Fabrique de Bérets Basques et Alpins", was dissolved in 1936, probably on the death of Auguste Groll.

The hat factory employed between 30 and 40 employees at the beginning of the 1930s.

The workshops of the Duchemin embroidery factory in 1918-1919: in the background, on the right, we can see the Groll workshops

His brother Eugène continued the business under the name Bougarel-Groll. The factory closed its doors in the 1950s. The buildings, burned down, are currently in ruins.

Fabrique Moderne de Bérets Basques

One of the most important Basque beret factories in France was the 'Fabrique Moderne de Bérets Basques' by monsieur Henri Veyrier. 

As so often, the factory was not located in the Basque Country, nor in Béarn, but in the town of Bruyères in the Vosges, in the north-east of France.

The Fabrique Moderne de Bérets Basques was founded on August 1, 1919. The production took place in the Bruyères, while the shop was located in Paris, at rue Meslay 25 (these days a shoe shop). 

At one stage, the factory was the largest beret producer in the world.

Veyrier was a major supplier of the French military and many of its berets can still be found on collectors and auction sites. 

The factory went out of business in 1965 and in 2010 the buildings were demolished.

Foresters World-Wide

 

Kenyan Forest Service Commanding-Officer Francis Legei 

Dutch 'boswachter' (ranger) Tim Hogenbosch

Aline Masika Kisamya Kisamya, one of 14 pioneering women rangers in Virunga National Park,  pauses to check on the guests she’s leading on a trek to see a family of mountain gorillas.

D.R.Congo

French foresters, 1970s

Sapeurs-Forestiers

The Sapeurs-Forestiers (Forest Sappers) were an army corps in existence between 1927 and 1945. They replaced the forest hunters whose corps was abolished in 1924.

Between the two world wars, the military command, anxious to ensure the army's great wood needs in the field, organized forest sapper units during peacetime, supervised only by reserve personnel.

The béret plays a role even in the ‘song of the foresters’:

I know under my French sky,

Tanned guys with pensive foreheads,

In green jackets

In blue hunter's pants.

The beret tilted over the ear,

And on the lips a song,

They leave when the dawn turns red,

Up there colors the horizon.

Jay Garfield

Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Tibetan Studies in India program at Smith College. 

He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Academicinfluence.com has identified him as one of the 50 most influential philosophers in the world over the past decade.

Gaie Delap

Gaie Delap, a 78-year-old beret wearing climate protester, has had her prison sentence extended by 20 days for being "unlawfully at large", after the authorities failed to find a tracking bracelet that fitted her.

Delap, a retired teacher from Bristol, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment for her part in a Just Stop Oil protest in 2022. She was released in November to complete her sentence at home, but was then recalled to prison when no appropriate tracker could be found to monitor her.

French Portraits

 

Beret Fire

 

Bérets et Pipes

 

Beards & Berets

 

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