Philippe de Gaulle, who was a significant military figure in his own right, heeded his father’s call to join Free French forces in the fight against Nazism in World War Two.

He later had a successful naval career, rising to the rank of admiral, and also became a senator.

Despite a striking physical resemblance, he was a more low-key figure than Charles de Gaulle but devoted himself to preserving the memory of his father, notably through numerous books including the successful work “De Gaulle, my father”.

His son Yves de Gaulle told AFP that he died overnight in the Invalides in central Paris, the French military institution where he had lived for two years.

“Philippe de Gaulle anticipated his father’s call to join the Resistance,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a tribute on X.

“Sailor, admiral, senator, he never came up short when courage and honour were required. A century of French bravery.”

Eric Ciotti, head of the right-wing Republican party that sees itself as the inheritor of de Gaulle’s political mantle, described Philippe de Gaulle as a “pillar” of France.

“His life dedicated to the service of France, in the navy and in the Senate, was a living example for the Republic,” he wrote on X.

“France was in his heart until the end,” added defence minister Sebastien Lecornu.

He joined the Free French Naval Forces in 1940 and fought in the North Atlantic until 1944, then in France itself when the Resistance joined the Allies in pushing the Nazis out of France, taking part in the Normandy Landings of D-Day.

After the war, he saw action during post-colonial conflicts in Indochina (modern-day Cambodia, Laos, and parts of Vietnam and China), Morocco, and Algeria.

Charles de Gaulle was wary of the slightest hint of nepotism and never helped his son win a post, nor did he decorate him with the Order of Liberation after the war.

The upbringing of Charles de Gaulle’s three children was austere, with their mother Yvonne said to only kiss Philippe and his two sisters on their birthday and Dec 31.

The eldest of the sisters, Elisabeth died in 2013 while the youngest of the children Anne, who suffered from Down Syndrome, died in 1948 aged just 20.

“I know everything, my boy. Your position has never been easy. It’s not nothing to be the son of General de Gaulle,” he was told on one occasion by his father.

“But your attitude has always been the one I expected of you,” said Charles de Gaulle.