Francine Lemire was born in Lille on 26 August 1895.
She studied at the Lycée Fénelon, graduating in July 1910. The war did not prevent her from continuing her studies, and she obtained a baccalauréat in Latin, sciences and philosophy, with honours in mathematics, in 1916, which enabled her to enter the Lille Faculty of Science and study for the three-year ‘chemical engineer’ degree, along with another fellow student, Louise Masse.
Together, they passed every exam and became the first ‘chemical engineers’ to graduate in July 1919, as part of a class of 13 students. Francine Lemire lived with her family at 68 rue du Chevalier français until her marriage to Robert Carpentier on 26 October 1920, a chemical engineer and former undergraduate classmate. The marriage certificate states that she had no profession, and the lack of sources makes it impossible to determine whether she subsequently practised a profession.
Notes written by Julie Ille-Roussel.
This short profile was written as part of the second edition of the ‘Université avec un grand Elles’ (Women Who Shaped the University) exhibition, which was held in 2021.