PETER CHELLEN
Marc Franco Grégoire was born at L’Escalier, a village south of Mauritius, on 4 March 1927. He passed away at Clapham Junction, Battersea, South London on 22 February 2022.
Marc Grégoire was a self-made man if ever there was one. He started off in life totally from scratch. On leaving primary school, he served as an apprentice to his father in his blacksmith workshop at l’Escalier. At 17, he moved to Port Louis at Rue Madame (Volcy Pougnet Street) to join his elder brother Paul, who had been recruited by the Mauritius Railways Mechanical Workshop at Plaine Lauzun, a suburb of Port Louis.
At Port Louis, with his experience as an apprentice ‘forgeron’, Marc found work at the Mauritius Telecommunications Department, Edith Cavell Street, as a bicycle mechanic. It was a time when the department had hundreds of bicycles for use by the field workers who had to call on telephone subscribers for repair work, and Marc Grégoire became part of the bicycle maintenance team. I was myself, at the time, a member of the Civil Service working at the Social Welfare Department which was located in the new Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWF) building, a stone’s throw from the Telecom Department. I often saw Marc then in his khaki shorts always with a screw driver attached to his waist.
No Ordinary Mechanic
But Marc was no ordinary mechanic; he wanted to improve his intellect. He developed close friendship with intellectuals like Jean Georges Prosper, author of numerous works including his opus Histoire de la Littérature Mauricienne, later director of the Mandela Centre, Cultural Adviser to the Ministry of Education and Cultural Attaché at the Mauritius Embassy in Paris, but above all, author of the lyrics of the national anthem of Mauritius. At the Mauritius Telecom Department Marc Grégoire became acquainted with Emmanuel Juste, a civil servant of the Executive Class. Emmanuel Juste belonged to the literary world and was a contributor to local newspapers. In Emmanuel Juste, Marc found a willing coach to help him improve his alphabetisation.
Marc also became acquainted with Marcel Cabon, Chief Editor at the daily ADVANCE. Marcel Cabon was an erudite of the French language. Taking young Grégoire under his wings was to prevent him from “murdering the language”, an expression from Cabon’s himself. In the Ward IV of Port Louis, Marc met Rivaltz Quenette, Clerk to the Legislative Assembly (the National Assembly), author of Le Réduit and La Franc-maçonnerie à l’île Maurice. Marc made the acquaintance of Edouard Maunick (Municipal Librarian, poet), Camille Moutou (Civil Servant), Karl Achille (Later Government Printer), Ken Nathaniel (educator and poet). Marc Grégoire, together with this elitist group, became a member of the literary group who founded Le Cercle Rémy Ollier. They used to meet at a venue in Mère Barthèlemy Street in Port Louis.
At the Telecom Department, Marc Grégoire also developed a close friendship with the Chief Finance Officer, René Balancy, brother to Guy Balancy – later Mauritius representative to the UN. Through René Balancy – father of Eddy Balancy, later Chief Justice –, Marc developed a taste for figures. He took lessons from him in bookkeeping, sat for the Institute of Bookkeepers Examinations, first for the Elementary Bookkeeping Examination, then the Intermediate and Higher Bookkeeping Examinations, finally the examination to become a Fellow of the Institute. That was at a time when even the Mauritian holders of the posts of Accountant General, Financial Secretary and Director of Audit had no academic qualifications in accountancy. These civil servants had been kicked up and up on the hierarchy ladder as a result of their seniority within the Finance Cadre of the service . . . And Marc Grégoire – with his academic qualifications – was still a bicycle mechanic at the Mauritius Telecom Department.
Emigrating to UK
In 1964, Marc obtained from the Mauritius Government a period of study leave without pay and left for the UK. By then he had befriended all the senior English Officials, mostly engineers, of the Telecom Department. One of the great qualities of Marc Grégoire was that he was a gifted orator. He could deliver a speech at any time to any assembly and this ability endeared him to his superiors. One of the English engineers encouraged him to go to England to better his station in life from a mechanic, and the official even loaned him the money for his airfare to London. In London, I was to renew acquaintance with Marc as I had myself, the same year, been seconded for duty to the newly-created office of Mauritius Commission (not a High Commission yet) based at Trafalgar Square. The purpose for the setting-up of the Mauritius Commission in London in August 1964 by the British Government was to prepare Mauritius to have a fully-fledged diplomatic service by the time of its independence, which actually came four years later, i.e. on 12 March 1968.
Well, to find his way in London, like many students who had to look for part-time jobs to support themselves, Marc did rubbish pick-up and cleaning at the Metropole Cinema in Victoria, close to the famous station. He soon made his way up to be in charge of the check-takers, i.e. of those collecting admission tickets from patrons attending film shows. Thus, he was, himself, able to recruit Mauritian students in London who needed part-time jobs to support themselves financially.
Before long, Marc Grégoire did a spell at the library of the University of London, Gower Street, WC1, as a clerk. Through contacts he made, he managed to obtain a job in the accounts section of Harrods, the world’s leading luxury department store where he served for 21 years. By the time of his retirement in 1989 he was the Senior Accountant of Harrods. Heading a team, he had to ensure the daily collation of the sales of the various departments of the Superstore, and that before the digital age when such an operation demanded considerable mental stamina. During his time at Harrods Marc carried on with his correspondence (now online) studies to obtain a diploma from the Institute of Supervisory Management.
Marc started a career as a ‘forgeron’ in his father’s workshop at L’Escalier and he certainly did forge his way up in life to become a senior accountant at Harrods. Even so far away, Marc never stopped caring for his parents and was full of love for his mother and sister at home.
At Harrods, Marc had met and married Leonilde, a girl from Portugal. They were the most compatible and the happiest couple one can meet. Their house at Clapham Junction, off Battersea, in South London was always open to visitors. Many visitors from Mauritius used to knock on the Grégoire’s doors and this won them the reputation among the visiting compatriots that “Chez les Grégoire, on reçoit bien.” Leonilde passed away three years ago and Marc became a lonely figure in his three-bedroom house. He fortunately found much consolation and comfort from his Portuguese friends living in the area. They really loved him.
Marc did not massacre the French language after all, as Marcel Cabon feared. On the contrary, his command of the language was expressed in three publications: Moissons Fragiles (1991), introduced by Jean Georges Prosper, Orchidée (2003), prefaced by Kenneth Nathaniel, and Kellyann (2012) prefaced by Jean Georges Prosper. Reading some of Marc’s texts one can feel l’âme du poète in him.
In London, Marc was a contributor to Mauritius News, which I had the pleasure to edit and publish for 32 years (1983 to 2015). At his funeral the eulogy was delivered by his old friend Devadas (Nonos) Vassoodeven of the Victoria days, which is reproduced in an issue of the Mauritian Overseas Gazette.