The ICRC learnt with very deep sorrow of the death on 18 March 1986 of Mr. Roger Gallopin, honorary member and former President of the Executive Board of the institution. In him the International Committee has lost one of its most faithful and lifelong servants.

He was 27 years old when he joined the ICRC in 1936. A young Doctor of Laws and author of a thesis on the Anglo-Irish conflict, he seemed destined for a brilliant carreer in law. And indeed his main activity consisted initially in making preparations, with one of his colleagues, for the Diplomatic Conference for the Revision of the Geneva Conventions which was due to be held in 1940 and which the outbreak of hostilities then postponed. His subsequent career revealed his talents as an organizer and diplomat.