Léopold Javal

Léopold Javal (1804 to 1872) was a French banker, agriculturalist and politician, born in Mulhouse into the Javal family, a French industrialist family. His father, Jacques Javal the Younger, was one of the richest men in France and established one of the first printed textile mills in Saint Denis. Léopold served in the French army, including the Algerian campaign, where he became a cavalry officer, and afterwards took control of the family banking business, using it to invest in and organise the rail network in Alsace, including the Mulhouse-Cernay line built with the industrialist Emile Koechlin. In 1851 he was elected to the general council of the Gironde, and from 1857 until his death he sat in the legislature as deputy for the Yonne. He is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.