Jean Moulin was born on 20 June 1899 in Béziers, France. Before the Second World War, he built a career in the French prefectural administration and also worked in several ministerial cabinets. In 1925, he became the youngest sub-prefect in France, at Albertville. He later served in Châteaulin, Thonon and Amiens, before being appointed prefect of Aveyron in 1937 and prefect of Eure-et-Loir in January 1939.

When war broke out in September 1939, Moulin wanted to join the army but was kept in his administrative post in Chartres. During the German advance in June 1940, he dealt with the arrival of refugees and the collapse of the French administration. On 17 June 1940, after German troops entered Chartres, he refused to sign a false statement accusing African soldiers of the French Army of atrocities against civilians. Arrested and beaten, he attempted suicide rather than sign the document. He survived and kept the scar for the rest of his life.

In November 1940, the Vichy regime dismissed him from his post. Moulin moved to the southern zone and began making contact with Resistance groups. In 1941, he travelled through Spain and Portugal to reach London, where he met General Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle appointed him as his personal representative in France and tasked him with coordinating the Resistance and linking it to Free France.

Parachuted back into France on 2 January 1942, Moulin settled in Lyon and began working under several aliases, including Rex and Max. He contacted the main Resistance movements in the southern zone: Combat, Libération and Franc-Tireur. His work contributed to the creation of the Armée secrète and then the Mouvements unis de Résistance. To provide cover for his activities, he opened an art gallery in Nice under the name Romanin, a pseudonym he had already used as an artist.

On 27 May 1943, Moulin succeeded in bringing together representatives of Resistance movements, political parties and trade unions in Paris for the first meeting of the Conseil national de la Résistance. On 21 June 1943, he was arrested with other Resistance members at Caluire, near Lyon. Tortured by the Gestapo in Lyon and then in Paris, he died on 8 July 1943 while being transported to Germany. His ashes were transferred to the Panthéon on 19 December 1964.