Gavroche Thenardier (1820-6 June 1832) was a French street urchin and revolutionary who was killed during the June Rebellion of 1832.
Biography[]
Gavroche Thenardier was born in Paris, France in 1820, the third child and first son of the criminals Alain and Helene Thenardier, and the younger brother of Eponine and Azelma. His parents sent him to live on the street, where he would be better off than if he was at home, and he resided in the hollow cavity of the Elephant of the Bastille statue at the Place de la Bastille. Gavroche occasionally took part in the criminal activities of his father's Patron-Minette gang, and he also became a radical republican, joining the meetings of the Les Amis de l'ABC secret society during the leadup to the June Rebellion of 1832. On the first evening of the rebellion, Thenardier identified the volunteer Etienne Javert as an undercover police inspector, earning the congratulations of his fellow revolutionaries. On the second day of the rebellion, 6 June, he ran through an opening in the barricade to find more ammunition for the desperate revolutionaries on the other side, even as Jacques Courfeyrac and Paul Combeferre attempted to bring him back to their side. As Gavroche collected the discarded cartridges and sang a song, he was shot twice by the National Guard, killing him. Javert, who reviewed the bodies of the slain revolutionaries, was stricken with grief at the sight of Gavroche's body, and he unpinned his police medal and placed it on Gavroche's chest out of respect.
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