 Gaston Palewski was educated at the Sorbonne, at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques and at Oxford University—he spoke excellent English and was a convinced Anglophile.Using family connections, he obtained a post with Marshal Hubert Lyautey, the French Resident-General in Morocco.In 1928 he became principal private secretary to Paul Reynaud, a leading politician who was then Minister for Finances and who became Prime Minister of France in March 1940.