Léon Abrami

Born in Constantinople (Turkey) on July 1, 1879, died in Paris on January 5, 1939.

Member of Parliament for Pas-de-Calais from 1914 to 1928 and from 1932 to 1936.

Under-Secretary of State for War from 1917 to 1920.

Son of Casimir Abrami, an engineer of Italian origin, Léon Abrami, after brilliant secondary studies at the Lycée Hoche in Versailles, followed courses at the Paris Law Faculty, the School of Political Science, and the School of Oriental Languages, from which he graduated with a degree in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Greek.

In 1903 he was admitted to the Paris Bar and in 1905 he was third secretary of the Lawyers' Conference.

By his marriage in 1909 he became the son-in-law of Theodore Reinach, historian and archaeologist, member of the Institute. In 1913 he entered as attaché to the cabinet of Pierre Baudin, Minister of the Navy and the following year was elected deputy of Boulogne (3rd district) in the general elections of April 11, 1914 in the first ballot by 7,316 votes against 5,611 in Myrens, the outgoing deputy.

A member of the Republican Left group and a member of the Commission for Judicial Reform and Civil and Criminal Legislation, the Merchant Navy Commission, the Commission for the Revision of Constitutional Laws and the Commission for Economic Reorganization, he was interested in the discussion of a bill relating to the changes made to rental leases by the state of war (1917).

Mobilized in August 1914, fighting in Lorraine and Argonne, promoted to second lieutenant, he was assigned to the General Staff of General Sarrail, commander of the Army of the East. Suffering from malaria, he was repatriated and made a knight of the Legion of Honor in a military capacity. In 1917, he questioned the Briand Government on its policy in Greece, then on November 17 was appointed by Clemenceau Under-Secretary of State for War, in charge of personnel and pensions. It was in this capacity that he had the law of 31 March 1919 adopted, modifying "the legislation on pensions for the land and sea armies in the case of injuries received, illnesses contracted or deaths occurring as a result of the current war".

Re-elected in the general elections of November 16, 1919, on the Republican, Social and National Union list, where he came second, he joined the Democratic Republican Left group. He retained his portfolio as Under-Secretary of State and in this capacity intervened during the discussion of an interpellation on the payment of demobilization bonuses, and then took part in the discussion of a bill on the appropriations of the Ministry of War (1919).

On 20 January 1920 he resigned at the same time as Clemenceau's cabinet and as a member of parliament took part in the discussion of the budget for the 1920 financial year to request the transfer of the bodies of soldiers who had died in the East (1920). He was also concerned about the division of the Seine department into electoral districts (1924).

He was re-elected in the general elections of May 11, 1924 at the head of the Republican Union list and joined the radical left group. Member of the Army Commission, the Alsace-Lorraine Commission and the Military Navy Commission, he was interested, during the discussion of the 1925 finance law, in the turnover tax and seafood products (1925). At the same time, however, he continued his career as a great lawyer.

He did not stand for re-election in 1928 when the district elections were reinstated, but regained his seat in the 2nd district of Boulogne in the elections of May 1 and 8, 1932.

Still a member of the radical left, he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Commission and the Hygiene Commission. He tabled a motion for a resolution to "invite the Government to provoke in all the member states of the S.D.N. and signatories of the Briand-Kellogg Pact, the initiative of a revision of their respective constitutions with a view to subjecting general mobilization and war to prior and general popular consultation" (1932), and asked to question the Government on the insolence of certain unionized teachers (1933).

He resigned from his mandate on January 16, 1936 in order to devote himself to his profession. He died three years later.