Charles de Tricornot de Rose

Jean Baptiste Marie Charles de Tricornot de Rose was a French Army pilot. He joined the French Army in 1895 and became a cavalry officer. During a three-year suspension, for refusing orders to enter churches in support of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, de Rose became interested in aircraft. Upon his return to the army he attended a flying school and became the first holder of a French military pilot's licence. In the lead-up to the First World War Tricornot de Rose served under Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne to develop French army aviation and experimented with mounting machine guns on aircraft.