start of the First World War, Bénard was mobilised and put in command of the squadron of minesweepers at Toulon. He was later promoted to the rank of Capitaine de frégate. After the war, Bénard moved to Penmarc'h, where he devoted himself to archaeology. When marine officer and notable archaeologist Louis Eugène Le Pontois died in 1919, Bénard added "Le Pontois" to his name to honor his distant cousin. In 1922, he divorced his wife Suzanne, but remarried Gabrielle Philippson-Goldschmidt the following year. She was the daughter of a wealthy Belgian banker and herself divorced. The couple had two children together. With Théodore Monod and , Bénard Le Pontois performed excavations in the local area and founded the . In 1931, Gabrielle and Charles divorced. Shortly after returning from an expedition with Monod to the Sahara desert, Bénard Le Pontois learned that his ex-wife intended to take their two children and end her alimony payments to him. Unable to face this situation, he asphyxiated his children and himself. Honours Officier de la Légion d'honneur Croix de guerre 1914-1918 Publications Le Venezuela, études physiques, politiques, commerciales, minières et agricoles, 1897. Histoire des Expositions de Bordeaux, Société Philomathique de Bordeaux, 1899. La Conquête du Pôle, 1904. Dans l'océan Glacial et la Nouvelle-Zemble (avril-septembre 1908), 1909. Mission Arctique : Stations scientifiques, Cartographie - Météorologie, vol. 6, Bordeaux, Société d'Océanographie du Golfe de Gascogne, 1911. Co-authored with P. Favret, G. Boisselier: Importance archéologique de la presqu'île de la Torche, Penmarc'h, Finistère, Quimper, Jaouen, 1919. Un été chez les Samoyèdes, 1921. Le Finistère préhistorique, Paris, Édition Nourry, 1929. References 1867 births 1931 deaths People from Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine French explorers Explorers of the Arctic French navigators French oceanographers 20th-century French archaeologists École Navale alumni Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Murder–suicides in France