Hubert-Joseph Henry (1846 in Pogny, Marne – 1898 at Fort Mont-Valérien), French Lieutenant-Colonel in 1897 involved in the Dreyfus affair. Arrested for having forged evidence against Alfred Dreyfus, he was found dead in his prison cell. He was considered a hero by the Anti-Dreyfusards.
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In August 1898 Godefroy Cavaignac ordered Captain Louis Cuignet to examine the documents which sent Captain Dreyfus to his exile from France to Devil's Island. This matter should have been brought before Parliament but due to Cavaignac's nature the Minister threw caution to the wind. Cuignet soon learned that the most damning evidence brought to the court in 1896 by Henry was in fact a forgery using two separate documents to assure the sentence he and his supporters desired. Henry was called into questioning on 30 August by Cavaignac and managed to protest his innocence for only an hour before he confessed. This led to the resignations of Generals de Pellieux and de Boisdeffre, who admitted having been duped by the forgery.
Henry was sent to the military prison at Fort Mont-Valérien. The day after he arrived he began to write: to his wife, "I see that except for you everyone is going to abandon me"; to his superior General Gonse, "I absolutely must speak to you"; in one cryptic comment declaring his guilt he wrote "You know in whose interest I acted." The meaning of this comment has never been explained; it may have referred to Ferdinand-Walsin Esterhazy, who was the actual author of the bordereau document, which had been used to arrest Captain Dreyfus, or perhaps to Lt Col Sandherr, another superior who passed on the bordereau to other high-ranking officers, such as the Minister of War, General Auguste Mercier.
While half way through a bottle of rum and mid-way through another letter to his wife, Hubert-Joseph Henry wrote "I am like a Madman" and proceeded to slit his throat with a shaving razor. On the day of his arrest the Colonel had been searched and no razor had been found; this sparked another outcry of murder, however due to Henry's actions, letters and state of mind, a cause of suicide was declared.
At first anti-Dreyfusards such as Edouard Drumont and Henri Rochefort upon hearing of Henry's suicide felt as though it was as good as declaring the guilt of a forged document and therefore Dreyfus' innocence to the people of France. However, a Royalist newspaper titled La Gazette de France praised their former conspirator for sacrificing his life for the Fatherland. Charles Maurras declared that the 'gallant soldier's' forgery stood among his "finest feats of war".
The Henry Monument was erected after his death for the support of the anti-Dreyfusard's cause and for his 'heroic forgery' which enabled Dreyfus to be imprisoned. The monument was funded using donations which were sent in by the French public.