Jean Joseph Tholin was the Mayor of Chamelet when on 25th March 1943, he died “of natural causes”.

He was born in Amplepuis on 1st February 1876, the son of Jean Marie Tholin and Marie Claudine Dumas.[Rhône Archives 4E6183]

He was married in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris to Marthe-Marie Petronille GRAFFIN on 21st October 1911.
[Paris Archives 17M338]

He served as a lieutenant in the Reserve Infantry during the First World War. He earned the ‘Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, presented to him in Chamelet on Monday 11th November 1929 by Commandant E Bruchon.[Archives Nationales L2647046 ]

Joseph Tholin was first elected mayor by the Conseil Municipal on May 19, 1912, and his deputy was Gervais Guerry, café/ hotel owner, who became mayor on December 10, 1919.

Joseph Tholin was elected mayor three times by the Conseil Municipal.
November 11, 1923 (Adjoint – François CHAVANT)
May 17, 1925 (Adjoint – Joannes BOUILLAND)
May 19, 1935 (Adjoint – Charles MARIZY)

He was Mayor of the town when he died on March 25, 1943, at 3 p.m., at his home in the centre of Chamelet.

NB – In an article entitled “Joseph Tholin, un maire oublé”, which can be found in the 2024-2025 Chamelet Magazine, it states in the first sentence that Tholin was Mayor of Chamelet for 31 years. This is incorrect. He was Mayor for 26 years, 11 months and 4 days. The article’s author is unknown, but the Mayor is at pains to point out that he accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions… 

Once again, the “Chamelet Historians” have forgotten the period when Gervais Guerry was Mayor. GERVAIS GUERRY was the Mayor of Chamelet from December 10 1919 until May 1925. Perhaps he is the maire oublé referred to in the title.

“The good historian… must be fearless, uncorrupted, free, the friend of truth and of liberty. One who calls a fig a fig, and a skiff a skiff, neither giving nor withholding from any, from favour or from enmity, not influenced by pity, by shame, or byremorse. A just judge… a stranger to all, of no country, bound only by his own laws, acknowledging no sovereign, never considering what this or that man may say of him, but relating faithfully everything as it happened.”

Lucian, ancient Greek writer and satirist (c.125-185)