Albert Rivière  Albert Rivière (24 April 1891 – 28 June 1953) was a French tailor and moderate socialist politician. He was Minister of Pensions between 1936 and 1940, and was briefly Minister of Colonies in 1940. Albert Rivière was born on 24 April 1891 in the village of Grand-Bourg, Creuse, son of an artisan shoemaker. His father, Léobon Rivière, was a shoemaker. His mother, François Gallous, was a seamstress. When he was born his parents already had two sons and four daughters, all of whom would later enter trades or shops. He apprenticed with a tailor, then joined the army. During World War I (1914–18) he was wounded in the face, and part of his jaw had to be replaced. He was awarded the Legion of Honor. On 22 November 1917 Rivière married Jeanne Chadaine, daughter of a cooper. A daughter was born in 1919 and a son in 1925. Rivière became a tailor and draper in Boussac, Creuse, where his brother was a baker. He became a militant in the movement of veterans and disabled from the war, and in the "Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière" (SFIO, French Section of the Workers' International). In 1919 he turned down an offer to run as socialist candidate for the legislature. In 1922 he became the first secretary of the SFIO federation of the Creuse after Camille Bénassy. He was on the socialist list in the elections of 1924, with three other veterans, but was not elected. Rivière ran for deputy for Boussac in the legislative elections of 1928 and was elected in the second round on 29 April 1928 by 7,086 votes out of 13,791. In the Chamber of Deputies he was a member of the committees on Commerce & Industry and on Civil & Military Pensions, and was particularly active in the latter. He was reelected on 1 May 1932 by 9,130 votes out of 14,070. He was a member of committees on the Army, Pensions, Regulation and Foreign Affairs, and was on the Commission of Inquiry into the 6 February 1934 crisis. He was active in debates on military spending, and explained the Socialist policy on national defense. Rivière was reelected on 26 April 1936 by 7,505 votes out of 18,835, and held office until 31 May 1942.