Alexandre Dreux

Alexandre Dreux (1853-1939)

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Obituary.

ALEXANDRE DREUX, Honorary President of the Societe des Acieries de Longwy, of the Comite des Forges de France and of the Chamber of Commerce at Nancy, died on April 15, 1939, at his home, the Chateau de Mont-Saint-Martin. Born at Villaines-la-Carelle (Sarthe) in 1853, Monsieur Dreux went to Eastern France about 1877, and undertook the direction of the Comptoir Metallurgique de Longwy. Later, in 1888, he joined the Acieries de Longwy as Managing Director; he took part in researches on the iron ores and coal in Lorraine, and brought a period of great prosperity to the Acieries de Longwy, which firm had known difficult times.

From 1908 onwards he was ably assisted by his son Edouard, who had studied in foreign iron and steel works; his help was invaluable during that period of prosperity, and still more so after the trying times which followed the Great War, when everything in the works had to be started afresh, with the result that by 1923 the plant had regained its pre-war capacity. Then his son died suddenly in Paris, and Monsieur Dreux consented to resume the reins, first as Vice-President and then President until recent years.

Monsieur Dreux had a long association with the Iron and Steel Institute. Elected to Membership in 1889, he became a Member of Council in 1924 and an Hon. Vice-President in 1932.

Monsieur Dreux was a great metallurgist and was one of the first to introduce the basic Bessemer process into France. By his death the French steel industry and Lorraine have lost an outstanding personality.

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