Born in 1901, Jean-Jacques Mayoux was educated at the Sorbonne and Exeter University, he became an English teacher and obtained his doctorate in 1933. Between 1925 and 1936 he was a lecturer of French language and literature at the University of Liverpool, then professor of English at the University of Nancy, and subsequently at the Sorbonne.

In 1945 he became Interim Director of the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC), following the end of Henri Bonnet’s second term. He argued for the survival of the IIIC and asked the French government to care for its funding (IIIC, A.II.1). Eventually, on 9 November 1946, he signed an agreement with Julian Huxley, representing UNESCO, which specified the termination of the IIIC and the transferral of all possessions (the library, archives, etc.) to UNESCO. From 1951 until 1973 Mayoux was professor of English literature at the Sorbonne. He died in 1987.

• J.-J. Renoliet, L’UNESCO oubliée: la Société des Nations et la coopération intellectuelle, 1919–1946 (Paris, 1999).
• UNESCO Archives, Archive Group 1, IIIC, A.II.1