Who is Henri Cormery from The First Man and what is their importance?

Henri Cormery is the father of Jacques. He dies in a war in France in 1914. Henri was also a solider during the war in Morocco in 1905, where he witnessed a horrible tragedy: his comrade left for dead with his genitals stuffed in his mouth. Henri says whoever did this is not a man. Due to the many horrors of war and Henri's natural personality, he is an unemotional character. As his wife gives birth to baby Jacques, the only emotion he shows is by laying his hand atop hers. He is a man of few words. He goes to war illiterate in 1914, but his commander teaches him to read, so Lucie has postcards from him during the war. The reader does not see much of Henri in the novel except for the first chapter because he is already dead. Jacques goes on a search for Henri during the course of the novel, finding out these snippets of who Henri was as a person.