French Secondary School « Charles de Gaulle »

The London school for French students who lived in London was created in 1915, nearby Victoria station.

In 1920, the school settled down at Cromwell Gardens, in front of Victoria and Albert museum. But the French community was getting bigger and it was thus necessary to find a bigger site. This place was found between Cromwell Road, Cromwell place, Queensberry place and Harrington Road.

Our group in front Lycée Charles de Gaulle in London

The building became the headquarter of the Free French Air Forces during the Second World War and the pupils of the school were evacuated in Lake Distict. The Nazi bombardments on London destroyed a wing of the school but is was rebuilt later.

In 1980, it took the name of « lycée français Charles de Gaulle » to pay tribute to the General who lived in London during the Second World War.

De Gaulle Statue

This statue was built in 1993, near the headquarters of Free French Forces. It’s a work of Angela Conner. The statue was erected by a national subscription headed by Winston Churchill’s daughter, Lady Soames.

De Gaulle Statue in London

De Gaulle is represented wearing baggy pants and gloves folded in one hand, staring into the blank stare. The bronze statue shows de Gaulle defiant in the uniform of a General de Brigade, with one palm curiously raised, almost as though in supplication. The life-size statue stands on top of a plinth that is equal in height to the figure. The inscription, carved into the plinth and picked out in gold reads:

« Charles / De Gaulle / 1890 – 1970 ».

At the base of the plinth is a bronze plaque that reads:

« This statue was unveilled by / Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth / The Queen Mother / on 23 June 1993 / Sculptor Angela Connor / Architect Bernard Wiehahn ».

Inscription at the base of the plinth

A commemorative ceremony took place in June 18th, 2010 in front of this statue to celebrate Franco-British friendship.

 This commemorative ceremony is organised each year by the embassy of France in London.

 

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

During the Second World War, General de Gaulle used the BBC to communicate with the French Resistants. This place is one of the most symbolic places of the Second World War.

BBC Broadcasting House in London, complete in 1932

The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) was founded in 1922 by John Reith and produces programs on British radio and television. In 1927, the BBC becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation, a public company whose goal is to educate, to inform and to entertain. It’s slogan is « Nation Shale Speak Peace unto Nation » which means : « La Nation parle de la paix à la nation».

Wintson Churchill , 1st British Prime Minister , welcomed General de Gaulle who left France for political reasons, and allowed him to launch his call for resistance June 18, 1940 on BBC radio. This speech was not recorded or filmed. General de Gaulle had to return the next day to repeat his call but it did not happen. In contrast, the speech of June 22, 1940 was recorded.

Click on this picture to watch a report on the appeal of June 18th

The BBC was the place of many other speeches to support the French in difficult times and give them hope.

Click on this picture to hear the appeal of the 18th June

Opposing the General Pétain negotiating with Germany for an armistice, this speech invites the French, especially the military, to continue the fight by joining him in London and organizing the French
resistance.

Radio London will be the name given to French-language programs broadcast by the BBC from 6 September 1940 to 22 November 1944.

De Gaulle also sent a message of greetings for Christmas 1941 children to France and he adressed the nation by radio the 6th June, 1944 to support the Allied landing operations in France :  « This battle, France will carry it with fury. She will lead the orderly. Thus we have, for fifteen hundred years, each won our victories. This is how we will win this one« .

 

Early 2013, the BBC staff left the historic building to occupy the new Broadcasting House : a new building of 90000 m2, 7 floors, and 3 basement levels, close fitting to historic quarters.

Rodinghead Astridge Park

Gadlas Hall had become to far from London. So, at the en of the year 1941 De Gaulle’s family residence was Rodinghead Astridge Park (50 km northwest of London). De Gaulle’s family lived there during the winter of 1941-1942.

This residence is more luxurious than the previous one. It is endowed of a henhouse, a piano and a post of TSF. De Gaulle spent a few weeks there when he has been affected of a serious crisis of malaria. It is there too that Churchill and the propaganda services of England required a report about De Gaulle in his private life.

Charles and Yvonne De Gaulle inRodinghead Astridge Park

Gadlas Hall

In the end of September 1940, De Gaulle and his family settled to Gadlas Hall, in Shropshire. It is situated in a wide-ranging park in Dudleston Heath village.

Général De Gaulle go there only on week-ends when his timetable allows him. It is a house comfortless with a garden containing a vegetable garden. His wife was gardening for fruits and vegetables in order to improve the ordinary and rationing time. The house was becaming freezing in winter. De Gaulle didn’t go there a lot of time because he often went in other countries and he was busy by his daily battles.

Rubens Hotel

De Gaulle settled at the Rubens hotel, near Buckingham Palace, in June 1940 with his family. They stayed two weeks in the room 87. They were here the night before the first call launched on BBC waves. The manuscrit of the speech was certainly written at this address.

Our group in front of Rubens hotel in 2014

Seamore / Seymour Grove

It’s in a flat of this little square, at the first floor, now called Curzon Square, nestled along Hyde Park, that Charles De Gaulle went in June 17th of 1940 with his camp assistant, Geoffroy Chodron de Curcel. This is his first family residence in London. This house was lent by Jean Laurent, his ex-chief of civil cabinet.

Curzon Place, Gateshead, London (today)

8, Seamore Grove, London (source : Jean-Pierre GENO, De Gaulle à Londres, Perrin, 2010)

The Royal Albert Hall

 

General de Gaulle made two speeches in Royal Albert Hall. One on November 15th, 1941 and an other one taking on June 18th, 1942.

Royal Albert Hall is first of all a Hall which was built in 1867. It was inaugurated in 1871, and is dedicated to art and built in honor of Prince Albert de Saxe-Cobourg Gotha , Queen Victoria’s husband. This hall can welcome 8000 peoples and have 5 different levels: an arena (big as 4 tennis courts, namely 2 000 seats), 3 loggias, a gallery and finally the balcony where the public is standing. It has an organ, second of England by the size. Royal Albert hall is one of the biggest concert halls of England and one of the most known in the world today.

Seen from the inside during the 2nd speech of De gaulle on 18th June 1942

First of all General de Gaulle pronounced a first speech surrounded by the members of the national council on 15th november 1941 to French in Great Britain . Several sources do not agree about the date of this speech but a radio report of the BBC allows us to confirm this date. It was broadcasted by the BBC within the framework of the broadcast  »Les Français parlent aux Français’‘.

This speech has for main purpose to re-motivate the Allied Forces to continue the fight and to remind the reasons why they fight. Indeed at the very beginning of the speech the General de Gaulle says the reasons why he wanted to gather the French Forces :  »So we saw fit to gather today, On the moving initiative of the French people of Great Britain to comfort us ourselves by the show of our union and strengthen us on the hard path of the fight for the homeland« . He also aims at making a point on the current situation of the fight to better reach their purpose. He introduced his speech in the following way  »The traveler who climbs the ascent sometimes stops a few moments to measure the traveled way and turn to the purpose ».  De Gaulle also wishes to explain to the whole world the objectives of  »free France« . He wants to show that free French want to fight to release Europe from the oppression while repairing all suffering endured.

Click on the picture to listen the 1st speech on 15 november 1941

De Gaulle gave a second speech, on 18th june in 1942 at 5 am at the second anniversary of the Free France in front of a packed amphitheater but it was broadcasted only on January 1st, 1943. A child pays tribute to French and to their leader, before General de Gaulle himself speaks in a strong speech on fighting France : « It’s in fighting France that all the france has to gather ». As for the first speech, the date differs according to sources but de Gaulle’s papers show that it has taken place on june 18th 1942. However, the speech of 11 November 1942 intervenes in a dramatic context. Indeed, on November 8, the Anglo-American forces landed in Algeria and Morocco. Even if he was kept out of the operation, de Gaulle called the French people of North Africa to join the Allies. This speech combines tribute to the resilience and praise of combativeness of the Soviet people. This speech has a remotivation purpose but also of tribute: « It’s the total sacrifice of some for the salvation of all that gather the entire homeland: dead soldiers of Keren, Kufra […] And besides, it’s you who made that the homeland is indivisible »

We can summerize this speech thanks to the following sentence: ‘‘The French mass is united in reality on three imperatives that here is: in the first place, the enemy is the enemy. Secondly, the salute of the homeland is only in victory. Thirdly, it’s in fighting France that the all France has to gather! The cement of the French unity, it’s the blood of the French people’‘

Click on the picture to listen the 2nd speech on 28th june 1942

 

The provisional French National Committee

The 18th June 1940, after the first volunteer’s coming, the provisional French National Committee takes place in twelve rooms at the St-Stephens House, Victoria Embankment, next to the Thames, buoyed by the official recognition of the British Government.

The free France remained only one month at this place and then moved to the 3 Carlton Gardens which became the headquarter of the Free French Forces on 22nd July 1940.

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