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Origin and history

The monument to Private Marche, located in Bully-les-Mines in the Hauts-de-France, is a bronze work by the sculptor Armand Roblot at the beginning of the 20th century. He commemorates Fernand Marche, a minor who became a soldier during World War I, who died heroically in 1916 during the Battle of Verdun. His act of bravery, where he conveyed a crucial message despite his fatal wounds, saved a French position. This monument, unique in its tribute to a simple soldier, was inaugurated in 1925 in front of the pit where Marche had worked.

Fernand Marche was born in 1888 in Bully-les-Mines and began working as a minor at the age of 13. Mobilized in 1914, he took part in several major battles before his death in August 1916. His body, found with the bloody fold still tight in his hand, becomes a symbol of dedication. The monument, originally placed in front of pit number 1, was moved in 1977 to the Henri Darras square after the mine site was closed.

The monument depicts March in its final posture, arm holding the message, on a base decorated with bas-reliefs evoking its dual status as a minor and soldier. The mining tools, the cross with its Adrian helmet, and the key dates (1914, 1916) are engraved. A plaque summarizes his achievement, while figures of soldiers and miners highlight the connection between the front and the rear. Ranked a historic monument in 2010, it also illustrates the engagement of mining corporations during the war.

The work was commissioned by the superiors of Marche, Lieutenant Engerand and Colonel Lebaud, with the support of the Compagnie des Mines de Béthune. The sculptor Roblot, winner of the Salon des artistes français, chose a poignant realism to immortalize this gesture. The base, made by the marbrier Kinard, incorporates Art Deco elements, reflecting the aesthetics of the era. The monument, first installed in an industrial setting, became after 1977 a place of civil memory, anchored in local history.

Fernand Marche received the military medal posthumously in 1920, and his body rested in the national necropolis of Douaumont. Its history, distributed among the troops as early as 1916, inspired this exceptional monument: few ungraded soldiers were entitled to such recognition. The monument thus embodies the fusion of workers' and military destinies, typical of the mining basin of Nord-Pas-de-Calais during the Great War.

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