Roland Garros

NAME Roland Adrien Georges Garros

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Pioneering French aviator, WWI flying ace, and the first person to fly across the Mediterranean Sea. Posthumously, his name was given to the French Open tennis stadium in Paris.

BIRTH Born October 6, 1888 in Saint-Denis, Réunion, France, on Rue de l'Arsenal (now Rue Roland-Garros). Garros spent his early childhood on this French island in the Indian Ocean before moving to Saigon, Vietnam, at age 4 with his family.

FAMILY BACKGROUND Roland Garros was born to French parents who were keen musicians and hoped their son would become a concert pianist. His father, Georges Garros, was an ambitious lawyer who moved the family to Saigon when Roland was young. His mother was named Eugénie

CHILDHOOD  His childhood was marked by his separation from his family when sent to boarding school in Paris at age 11, an experience that left him crying "tears of rage at his father and tears of sadness for his mother". (1)

At age 12, Garros contracted severe pneumonia and was sent to Cannes on the French Riviera to recover. During his convalescence, he took up cycling to restore his health and soon won an inter-school championship in the sport. 

During his student years, he also became a keen tennis player and regularly visited the Stade Français tennis center. Football and rugby rounded out his athletic pursuits during his youth.

EDUCATION His father made the decision to send Roland to a Parisian boarding school without consulting his mother, causing the 11-year-old boy significant emotional distress. 

Garros attended the prestigious Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris for his secondary education. He then enrolled at HEC Paris (École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) in 1906, where he graduated in 1908 with a degree in business studies.

 At HEC Paris, he met classmate Émile Lesieur, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Lesieur sponsored Garros to enter the exclusive Stade Français club.

CAREER RECORD 1909 Garros began flying with a Demoiselle monoplane.

1911 He set an altitude record of 18,410 feet

1913 On September 23, 1913, Garros became the first person to fly across the Mediterranean Sea. 

1914-1918 During WWI, he became a combat pilot and helped pioneer forward-firing machine gun technology. Captured in 1915, he escaped in 1918 and returned to combat before being killed later that year.

APPEARANCE Contemporary accounts describe Garros as a slender figure with black curly hair, dark eyes, and a neatly trimmed moustache that became part of his public image. He was noted for his distinctive appearance and became a recognizable figure in Parisian society.

Roland Garros in front of a Demoiselle plane in 1910

FASHION Pre-war Paris knew him as a dapper boulevardier who wore tailored suits when dining at Maxim's.

For flying, Garros wore functional garments designed for warmth and protection in open cockpits, such as leather flying helmets, goggles, and heavy leather jackets. These items were not just practical but also became iconic symbols of the daring aviator.

CHARACTER Garros was described as audacious, inventive, and famously persistent. He carved Voltaire's maxim "La victoire appartient au plus opiniâtre" ("Victory belongs to the most persevering") on his propellers and lived by it. Contemporary accounts portray him as someone who "never did anything by halves", with an unquenchable passion for aviation and a determination to push boundaries.

SPEAKING VOICE Air-show reporters described an eloquent, carrying baritone when he addressed crowds after record flights, though no recordings survive. He was fluent in English, having spent several summers across the English Channel, which aided his international aviation career.

SENSE OF HUMOUR Friends recalled an irrepressible wit and flair for repartee in Parisian cafés. His correspondence suggests a man capable of levity despite the serious nature of his wartime service.

RELATIONSHIPS Garros maintained a lifelong friendship with HEC classmate Émile Lesieur, who later became president of Stade Français and was instrumental in naming the tennis stadium after Garros. 

A pre-war romance with socialite Marcelle Gorge was noted in society columns, but he never married.. 

Garros moved in artistic circles that included Misia Sert and Jean Cocteau, both of whom memorialized his life after his death. 

MONEY AND FAME Garros was a celebrated figure in early aviation, gaining international fame for his daring flights—especially his historic crossing of the Mediterranean. Though not immensely wealthy, he had the means to fully immerse himself in aviation, thanks to prize money from air races, proceeds from exhibition tours, and a profitable car dealership near the Arc de Triomphe. His business sense shone through in the success of that dealership, located at 5 Avenue de la Grande Armée. 

His fame soared after the Mediterranean feat and endured long after his death, memorialized by the Roland-Garros tennis stadium, Réunion’s international airport, and even a line of special-edition Peugeot cars that bear his name. 

FOOD AND DRINK A regular at Maxim's during its glory years, Garros favoured fine Bordeaux and the restaurant's celebrated seafood platters—standard fare for Parisian high society of the Belle Époque. His dining habits reflected his status among the fashionable set of pre-war Paris. (2)

MUSIC AND ARTS A competent pianist from a musical family, his parents had originally hoped he would pursue a career as a concert pianist. Wartime letters mention evenings of chamber music in Paris salons, indicating his continued appreciation for the arts.

Garros moved in artistic circles that included prominent cultural figures of the time. The famous French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau dedicated a text titled "Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance" (The Cape of Good Hope) to Roland Garros, inspired by his epic Mediterranean crossing

LITERATURE Garros was an avid reader of Enlightenment authors, particularly Voltaire, whose writings supplied his famous motto about victory belonging to the most persevering. However, he published no literary works of his own.

NATURE His passion for altitude and open skies was matched by long cycling excursions along the Riviera during his convalescence from pneumonia. Garros' love of nature was evident in his choice of aviation as a career, seeking the freedom of flight and the challenge of conquering natural barriers like the Mediterranean Sea.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Garros was an accomplished athlete who competed in cycling, football, rugby, and tennis. He was particularly noted for his cycling prowess, having won inter-school championships. His involvement with rugby at Stade Français was facilitated by his friendship with Émile Lesieur. Garros also engaged in early automobile racing.

Roland Garros winning his inter-school cycling championship by Perplexity

SCIENCE AND MATHS Garros’s collaboration with engineer Raymond Saulnier showcased his keen technical mind and innovative spirit. He didn’t just fly aircraft—he understood their mechanics. When faced with the challenge of mounting a machine gun to fire forward through a spinning propeller, Garros recognized that Saulnier’s early design still allowed about 7% of bullets to strike the blades. Applying sharp analytical thinking, Garros refined the concept by fitting steel deflector plates to the propeller, allowing bullets to safely glance off without disabling the plane. This breakthrough marked a turning point in aerial warfare, laying the groundwork for future synchronized gun systems and revolutionizing fighter aircraft design. His work was a pioneering blend of applied ballistics, engineering, and aviation strategy.

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Garros was deeply patriotic and idealistic. Guided by secular stoicism, his oft-quoted Voltaire maxim "Victory belongs to the most persevering" underscored a belief in human perseverance.

POLITICS Apart from fervent patriotism that drew him into military service at the war's outbreak, he showed no partisan political activity. Nevertheless, he became a French national icon and symbol of heroic service to the nation.

AVIATION Roland Garros got into flying the way many people fall into trouble—with a casual visit to something that seemed harmless at the time. In his case, it was the 1909 Reims Air Show, a grand affair full of clattering engines, improbable machines, and men with moustaches far more confident than their flying skills. But for Garros, it was love at first lift-off. He left the show hopelessly smitten with the idea of flight and, as it turned out, was rather good at it.

He started flying the Demoiselle, or “Dragonfly”—a dainty-looking monoplane dreamt up by the eccentric Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. It was, to be generous, a glorified kite with an engine, and it flew only if the pilot was sufficiently light, wiry, and preferably had no fear of death. Fortunately, Garros ticked all three boxes.

Despite the primitive technology (the wings were basically stretched linen and prayer), Garros proved a natural. By 1910, he had earned pilot’s license No. 147 from the Aéro-Club de France—a club that at the time had more fatalities than graduates—and dove headfirst into the mad world of air races and exhibition flights.

And what a world it was. Imagine trying to fly across Europe in a lawn chair tied to a motorcycle engine, while maps blew away in the wind and you navigated by guessing which direction smelled more like Paris. Still, Garros did spectacularly well:

In 1911, he placed second in the Paris-to-Rome race (which, to be clear, involved flying over mountains in a time when altitude was measured more by guesswork than instruments).

In 1912, he won the Circuit de Anjou.

In 1913, he triumphed at the International Air Rally of Monaco, all the while charming crowds with loop-the-loops and death-defying dips.

If that wasn’t enough, Garros was also obsessed with going up. Higher than anyone else, preferably. In 1911, he reached an altitude of 3,950 metres (12,960 feet)—a record at the time. The next year, he bettered himself, ascending to 5,610 metres (18,410 feet), which was roughly the altitude at which your average French pilot could freeze solid if he wasn’t wearing a good scarf.

Then came his pièce de résistance: on September 23, 1913, Garros did something nobody had dared before. He flew non-stop across the Mediterranean—from Fréjus, on the French Riviera, to Bizerte, Tunisia—in a Morane-Saulnier monoplane. The journey took 7 hours and 53 minutes, which doesn’t sound like much until you realise it was basically him, a map, some oil-stained goggles, and a hope that the engine wouldn’t burst into flames somewhere over shark-infested waters.

It was, understandably, front-page news. France fell in love with Garros. He became the poster child for aviation—brave, dashing, and just mad enough to make it all seem possible. By the time World War I broke out, he wasn’t just a pilot—he was a symbol. He had helped turn the airplane from a novelty into something approaching a reliable machine (though still best described as “experimental” if you valued honesty).

In the glorious, dangerous pre-war days of aviation, Roland Garros was exactly the kind of figure who made people look up at the sky and think, “Why not?”

MILITARY RECORD When World War I broke out, Roland Garros, being the sort of chap who didn’t so much flirt with danger as take it out to dinner and propose, immediately signed up for the French Air Corps. He was made a lieutenant and assigned to Escadrille MS 26, where he flew the Morane-Saulnier Type L—a machine that resembled a cross between a canoe and a clothesline, with just enough horsepower to make the cows nervous.

Now, back then, airplanes were mostly used for reconnaissance. The idea of actual air combat was still a bit “science fiction meets amateur carpentry.” If you wanted to shoot at the enemy, the best you could do was bring a revolver and try your luck while leaning precariously out of the cockpit. It was all very sporting and wildly ineffective.

But Garros, never content to leave well enough alone, teamed up with engineer Raymond Saulnier to solve one of aviation’s more pressing problems: how to fire a machine gun forward without turning your propeller into confetti. Their solution was delightfully reckless—attach steel deflector wedges to the propeller blades so that bullets that hit them would bounce off, preferably not into the pilot’s face. It was not elegant, but it worked, and suddenly Garros had turned his airplane into a flying weapon.

In March and April of 1915, Garros returned to the front with his modified aircraft and, in just 18 days, downed five German planes. At a time when most airmen were still figuring out how not to fall out of the sky, this was practically superhero territory. He became the first true fighter pilot—proof that the age of aerial combat had arrived, and that it came with goggles, a scarf, and absolutely no safety precautions.

But fate, as it tends to, intervened. On April 18, 1915, during a routine mission over Belgium, Garros’ engine gave out—possibly thanks to a bullet, possibly because engines at the time were notoriously unreliable and prone to exploding out of sheer boredom. He crash-landed behind enemy lines, tried to set his plane on fire (as one does), but unfortunately failed to burn the bit with the shiny, very secret deflector system. The Germans, quite delighted, carted both Garros and his half-toasted plane away.

Garros was stuck in a series of German POW camps, where he passed the time by attempting multiple escapes with varying degrees of failure. Finally, on Valentine’s Day 1918, after nearly three years, he slipped away disguised as a German officer, fled to the Netherlands, and eventually made it back to France—thinner, wearier, and badly in need of spectacles.

Despite his declining health and worsening eyesight, Garros insisted on returning to combat. He rejoined Escadrille 26, now equipped with the SPAD S.XIII biplane—a far more powerful, if still terrifyingly flammable, machine. On October 2, 1918, he downed two more enemy planes (one confirmed), but it was clear the war—and the technology—had moved on. Younger pilots flew with better planes and better vision. Garros was a legend from an earlier, more romantic (and much deadlier) phase of aerial warfare.

On October 5, 1918, just one day shy of his 30th birthday, Garros was shot down near Vouziers, likely by German ace Hermann Habich. The war ended five weeks later.

SCANDAL When Roland Garros was forced to land behind German lines on April 18, 1915, his Morane-Saulnier Type L monoplane was captured largely intact. Crucially, this aircraft was fitted with Garros’ pioneering deflector system. Garros attempted to destroy his machine but failed, and both he and the aircraft fell into German hands.

The Germans handed the remains of his aircraft to a clever Dutch-born engineer named Anthony Fokker, who took one look and said, “Ah, I can do better.” What followed was the invention of the interrupter gear, which allowed German machine guns to fire through the propeller without hitting anything at all—a far more civilized solution. 

Allied outrage followed the capture of his intact Morane-Saulnier aircraft and the German adaptation of his deflector system, which led to the development of the superior Fokker interrupter gear. This inadvertently contributed to German air superiority during the "Fokker Scourge" period, causing controversy about France having "gifted" advanced aviation technology to the enemy.

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Garros overcame a childhood bout of pneumonia by throwing himself into sports, developing a physical resilience and athleticism that stayed with him for life. When he returned to combat in 1918, he quietly concealed the fact that he was developing myopia—determined not to be grounded. Years in captivity had taken a visible toll on his health, and his failing eyesight may well have played a role in the final dogfight that cost him his life.

HOMES Birth residence: Saint-Denis, Réunion, on Rue de l'Arsenal (now Rue Roland Garros)

Childhood: Family moved to Saigon, Vietnam, when he was 4 years old

Student years: Boarding school accommodations in Paris

Adult residence: Apartment above his Avenue de la Grande Armée car dealership by 1911

Wartime: Various frontline airfields and German prison camps

TRAVEL  After graduating from HEC Paris, he founded his own car dealership in Paris at the age of 21, naming it “Roland Garros Automobiles”. This business was located near the Arc de Triomphe and became a symbol of his entrepreneurial spirit and affinity for modern technology.

On September 18 1913, he became the first private owner of a Bugatti Type 18 "Black Bess," one of the most advanced sports cars of its time and a symbol of modern French chic. Garros also maintained a friendship with Ettore Bugatti, the legendary car designer. 

Black Bess by Herranderssvensson 

His escape from German captivity involved a dramatic journey through the Netherlands to London before returning to France.

DEATH Garros was shot down and killed near Vouziers in the Ardennes on October 5, 1918—just one day before his 30th birthday and a mere five weeks before the Armistice. His SPAD S.XIII likely fell victim to German ace Hermann Habich, who was flying a Fokker D.VII. During the fierce dogfight, Garros’ aircraft reportedly exploded in mid-air, bringing a sudden and tragic end to the life of one of aviation’s earliest heroes.

He was buried at Vouziers military cemetery, where a monument created by Victor Pierrard was erected in 1924 at his mother's initiative.

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA During his lifetime, Roland Garros's daring aviation feats, particularly his Mediterranean crossing, garnered significant attention in newspapers, magazines, and newsreels of the era. He was a celebrity in the burgeoning age of aviation, and his exploits were widely reported.

Posthumously, his most significant "appearance" in media is through the Roland Garros Stadium and the French Open tennis tournament. The tournament is broadcast globally, and his name is synonymous with one of the four Grand Slam events in tennis. 

Roland Garros Airport, Réunion's international airport, bears his name.

Numerous French streets and a plaza in Bizerte, Tunisia, honor his memory

Garros has been the subject of historical documentaries, articles, and books about early aviation and World War I. Jean Cocteau's dedication of "Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance" to him also represents a notable artistic tribute.

ACHIEVEMENTS First flight across the Mediterranean (1913)

World altitude records: 3,950 metres (1911) and 5,610 metres (1912)

Pioneer of forward-firing aircraft guns

French military hero and aviation innovator

Namesake of the French Open tennis stadium and Réunion’s international airport

Sources (1) Racquet (2) Bonjour Paris