Roger Marceau Lozes

Born 22 June 1887 in Lavardac (Lot-et-Garonne)
Died 6 June 1970 in Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne)
Military service with the Administrative Military Clerks and Labourers section

A blacksmith by trade, Roger Marceau left Lavardac for Bordeaux where he boarded La Cordillère (a Messageries maritime mail boat) which sailed the route between France and La Plata (Argentina). He worked there as a trimmer between 1911 and 1912.
Nothing is then known about his career until the spring of 1914. Employed first by the Compagnie de Courrières mining company, he then worked at the Somain briquette plant. He was later employed as a driver at the mills at the ironworks in Denain. Roger Marceau relocated frequently, often moving house, either because the work did not suit him or because he was forced to leave. 
He claimed to be an anarchist although he was not affiliated to any group. He was a member, however, of the Courrières union of mineworkers and subscribed to the Bataille Syndicaliste, a revolutionary and libertarian trade union newspaper and "unofficial mouthpiece" of the Confédération Générale du Travail, the confederation of trade unions.
He willingly expressed his political opinions in public places, which led to his arrest in Somain on 3 August 1914. This was his first brush with the judicial system, as he had no previous record.
He was accused of being a member of a criminal organisation, of insulting the army and of making seditious statements. Incarcerated in the remand prison in Douai, he was later detained in Santé prison in Paris (September 1914) and then in the military prison of Boulogne-sur-Mer (October 1914).
As the charge of membership of a criminal organisation was not sufficiently proven, he was tried by the War Council for the offences of insulting the army and sedition and was sentenced to 3 months’ imprisonment and a 500 franc fine.
He joined his corps on 25 February 1915 and was detached to a factory in Castelsarrasin. After spending a year with a Field Artillery Regiment, he was assigned to a metalworking plant in Toulouse and then to explosives factories in Toulouse and later Lennemezan. He was demobilised on 12 July 1919 and was awarded the Victory Medal.