Gaston Calmette

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The cover of Le Petit Journal illustrating the assassination of Gaston Calmette by Henriette Caillaux

Gaston Calmette (born January 30, 1858 in Montpellier; died March 16, 1914, Paris) was a French journalist.

In January 1914 Calmette, who had been editor of the newspaper Le Figaro since 1902, launched a campaign against Minister of Finance Joseph Caillaux, known for his pacifist stance towards Germany. During this campaign, which was orchestrated by Louis Barthou and Raymond Poincaré, Le Figaro published several letters from the Minister's private correspondence. Caillaux's second wife Henriette, fearing that the newspaper would also make public a love letter that showed how he was already having a relationship with her during his first marriage, entered Calmette's office on March 16, 1914 and shot him four times. Calmette died instantly. Caillaux had to resign his post the next day, but during a spectacular trial later that year his wife was acquitted.

Marcel Proust dedicated Swann's Way, the first volume of his novel In Search of Lost Time, to Calmette 'as a testimony of deep and affectionate recognition'.^[1]

Calmette was the brother of the bacteriologist Albert Calmette.