Jehan Alain

Jehan-Aristide Paul Alain was a French organist, composer, and soldier. Born into a family of musicians, he learned the organ from his father and a host of other teachers, becoming a composer at 18, and composing until the outbreak of the Second World War 10 years later. His compositional style was influenced by the musical language of the earlier Claude Debussy, as well as his interest in music, dance and philosophy of the far east. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Alain became a dispatch rider in the Eighth Motorised Armour Division of the French Army; he took part in the Battle of Saumur, in which he was killed.

3 February 1911

Born on the same birth day (3 February): Antonio José de Sucre • Artur Adson • Becky Bayless • Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton • Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz • Gordon Coates • Marie-Ève Drolet • Mathieu Dandenault

Born in the same month (February 1911): Charles Mathiesen • Elizabeth Bishop • Esa Pakarinen • Faiz Ahmad Faiz • Jack Pizzey • Jean Muir (actress) • Jussi Björling • Merle Oberon • Oscar Heidenstam • Oskar Seidlin • Ronald Reagan • Tarō Okamoto • Willem Johan Kolff • William Orlando Darby