The Department of French had its inception in the college from the day it was started at Nagapattinam in 1844. French was taught to European officials at first and later some Indians were admitted into the course. Fathers J. Bourdot, V. Allard, H. Ginhouse, A. Comboulives, A. Fournier, H. Audrian, F.X. Froehly, Lamahieu, G. Bergeron and J. A. Pays are the French Jesuits who headed the Department. Fr. Annase SJ, Messers A. Clemet, Antony Maria Michael Joseph and S. Sandranad all Indians ably assisted Fr. Bergerson till his retirement in 1976. He was followed by Dr. M.A. Savariar. The French Association started by him in 1978 is still functioning well. He was succeeded by Mr. A. Antony Raj who headed the department for 10 years. He was succeeded by Ms. Cynthia George who headed the department for about 1 year. She was succeeded by Mr Anandham Richard for 7 months as the head of the department. And for 3 years Mr Hermon Carduz is headed the department and Now Mrs.M.Mohanalakshmi is heading the department from June 2018 onwards.
