Ferrus, Léonce Aimé

Léonce Ferrus, turned towards the Artillery on leaving the Ecole Polytechnique and reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He is an officer with multiple talents and interests who was President of the Technical Commission of the Automobile-Club, Honorary President of the Weightlifting Club de France. He has written and translated many books on early aviation (including the translation of a book by Wilbur Wright), automobiles, cycling and artillery. An officer in the Directorate of Motor Transport Services during the First World War, he puts General Estienne and the Schneider companies in contact to manufacture the first tank. He also contributed to the development of martial arts in France, especially jiu-jitsu, and introduced "close combat" into the armed forces. He translated into French the works of Harry Hirving Hancock, one of the first Westerners to be introduced to judo, as early as 1905, with "Japanese physical training; the system of exercise, diet, and general mode of living that has made the Mikado's people the healthiest, strongest, and happiest men and women in the world", then with "Physical training for women by Japanese methods" (1906).