George Groslier

George Groslier (4 Feb. 1887, Phnom Penh-16 June 1945, Phnom Penh), the first child with French citizenship born in modern Cambodia, artist, novelist, historian, archaeologist, ethnologist, architect, photographer, founder and curator of the National Museum of Cambodia, was the ultimate ​“Cambodian scholar”.

While organizing the School of Cambodian Arts (nowadays the Royal University of Fine Arts) in the 1920s, he has extensively portrayed and studied the country, its people and its traditions, in his writings, paintings and erudite communications. He founded the Phnom Penh Albert Sarraut Museum in 1919, later to become the Cambodia National Museum. Groslier’s wife, Suzanne Poujade (1893−1970), was a niece of Albert Sarraut, former Governor-General of Indochina and then French Minister of the Colonies and future Prime Minister.

George Groslier was detained and tortured by the Japanese forces when Japan, a former ally of Petain’s French government, occupied vast swaths of South East Asia. Le Journal de Saïgon (7 Dec. 1945) reported six months after his death: ​“Le 9 mars 1945, Georges Groslier était hospitalisé ; rétabli, il habite le camp où il rédige pour lui un journal de l’occupation japonaise. Le 1^er juin, une rechute l’oblige à rentrer à nouveau à l’hôpital. Le 16 juin, il est arrêté par les Japonais, sorti de son lit et conduit à la Gendarmerie japonaise. Interrogé, torturé, il meurt à la suite du supplice de l’eau. Incinéré, ses cendres sont remises le 22 juin à sa famille. Déposé à la chapelle de l’Évêché, l’urne funéraire en sort le 25 juin pour être transportée au cimetière. Les dirigeants du camp français obtiennent des autorités japonaises que l’urne traverse le camp français et que 20 Français soient autorisés à sortir du camp pour l’accompagner au cimetière. Le matin du 25 juin, à 8 heures, le petit cortège traverse le camp, tous les Français sont rangés sur son parcours : dernier hommage à une noble victime.” [“On March 9, 1945, Georges Groslier was hospitalized; after he recovered, he lived in the camp where he wrote a diary of the Japanese occupation. On June 1, a relapse forced him to return to the hospital. On June 16, he was arrested by the Japanese, taken from his bed, and taken to the Japanese military police. Interrogated and tortured, he died following the water torture. Cremated, his ashes were given to his family on June 22. Placed in the chapel of the Bishopric, the funeral urn left on June 25 to be transported to the cemetery. The leaders of the French camp obtained from the Japanese authorities that the urn cross the French camp and that 20 French people be authorized to leave the camp to accompany it to the cemetery. On the morning of June 25, at 8 a.m., the small procession crossed the camp, all the French people lined up along its route: a final tribute to a noble victim.” Later, George Groslier’s ashes were transferred to France by his family, and have been interred in the family crypt in the 2020s.

With Suzanne Poujade, he had three children, Nicole, Gilbert and Bernard-Philippe, the latter following his father’s steps and becoming an eminent researcher in Cambodian archaeology and history.

Four of his major books — Cambodian Dancers, Ancient & Modern; In the Shadow of Angkor, Unknown Temples of Ancient Cambodia; Return to Clay, A Romance of Cambodia and Road of the Strong, A Romance of Cambodia – have been translated into English and published by DatAsia Press.

Read here about the Rue Groslier (Groslier Street) in Phnom Penh (access to National Museum).