Antoine Le Picard de Phélippeaux

Colonel Louis-Edmond Antoine le Picard de Phélippeaux was a French-born army officer best known for resisting the French invasion of Egypt and Syria. In 1783, Phélippeaux met Napoleon at the École Militaire in Paris where the two young men became lifelong enemies. During the French Revolution, Phélippeaux remained loyal to the ancien régime and fled to England in 1791. He joined the Army of Condé and fought against the French First Republic. After rescuing Sidney Smith from a Paris prison, Phélippeaux was made a British colonel thanks to Smith's influence and joined him in resisting the French invasion of Syria. Fighting against Napoleon in the siege of Acre, Phélippeaux died from fever in May 1799.