CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Albert Aernoult

French soldier

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ18645935 ↗
Source-derived summary

Albert Aernoult (19 October 1886 – 2 July 1909) was a French ditch digger. He joined the army at the age of twenty, and after serving for two years was sentenced to a few days in prison for a minor offence. He was given brutal punishment and died as a result. A fellow-prisoner reported the incident to the press and was sentenced to five years in prison, ostensibly for a different offense. There was a public outcry, and Aernoult was eventually reburied in Paris in a funeral attended by more than 100,000 people.

Life

Albert Aernoult was born on 19 October 1886 in Romainville, Seine, son of a laborer.

He became a ditch digger.

He was a trade union activist, and played a major role in the strike of metro workers at the end of 1905.

He was denounced as one of the activists.

To escape prosecution he left Romainville and found work in the mines of Courrières, Pas-de-Calais.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Albert Aernoult” as french soldier. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Albert, Aernoult and French.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1886, 1909, 1905—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1886-10-19. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Albert, Aernoult and French providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Albert Aernoult”, the useful work is to connect “french soldier” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18645935. VIAF identifies the subject as 311434118. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1886, 1909 and 1905.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Albert Aernoult”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Albert Aernoult primary sources, Albert Aernoult archive and Albert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Albert Aernoult”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Albert Aernoult” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.