General Gaston de Galliffet

Who he is

Gaston Alexandre Auguste, marquis de Galliffet (1830-1909), French cavalry general: wounded in Mexico, leader of the cavalry charges at Floing (Sedan, 1870), notorious for the summary executions in the repression of the Paris Commune in 1871, later minister of war (1899-1900) (Wikipedia, «Gaston de Galliffet»).

In the diary

• 1880-07-14 (089.0148): watching the troops return from the great review of the first national 14 July, Marie admires him: «Le passage des généraux fait sensation, Galliffet est superbe. Je n'ai jamais vu un plus beau militaire à cheval… Les cheveux blancs, cette moustache noire, ce teint coloré et cet air à tout casser.»
• 1884-05-10 (104.0158): among the people who look at her in the theatre boxes: «Mme de Pourtalès, les Bisaccia, Mme d'Hervey, le général de Galliffet même».

His wife, the marquise de Galliffet (née Florence Georgina Laffitte), appears in a Nice society column of 1879 (084.0159: «Mme la marquise de Gallifet») and at Dieppe in August 1879 (086.0125); she has her own entry, MARQUISE_DE_GALLIFFET (2026-10-22).