Francois-Joseph Servois: Priest, Artillery Officer, and Professor of Mathematics - Curator and Early Retirement

Servois' final position was as Curator of the Artillery Museum, located in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris. Currently, it is part of the Museum of the Army. Figure 7 shows the Museum of the Army as it stands today. Servois was officially assigned the position on May 2, 1817.

Figure 7. The Museum of the Army (photograph by Rama, 2006, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license)

On August 17, 1822, Servois was made a Knight of Saint-Louis. The Order of Saint-Louis was founded in 1696 and later served as a model for Napoleon's Légion d'honneur. Officers were awarded this knighthood for distinguishing themselves through their honor, bravery, and loyalty to the military. Servois was one of 661 officers to receive this honor in 1822 [Herman 1992].

On June 1, 1827, Servois retired to his hometown of Mont-de-Laval and lived twenty years longer. He never married, but retired with his sister and his two nieces. Servois died on April 17, 1847, in Mont-de-Laval, where “his legacy remains legendary” [Boyer 1895a, p. 313].