The appeal of 18th June

General de Gaulle’s appeal for resistance / Commemoration, 70 years after, of General de Gaulle’s appeal for resistance from England, by the Head of the French State and his spouse (18 June 2010)

Broadcast from the headquarters of the BBC in London by General de Gaulle, the Appeal of 18th June marked the beginning of French resistance against Nazi occupation. It sealed the alliance between the representatives of a Free France and the British forces represented by Winston Churchill. No recording exists of the text read on the BBC, although a written trace of the appeal have been classified since 18 June 2005 in the UNESCO Memory of the World register.

On 18 June, 2010, on the 70th anniversary of the Appeal, Nicolas Sarkozy was the first French president to celebrate the appeal on British soil. He travelled to London with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Welcomed by Prince Charles at his London residence, Clarence House, the couple then went to the historic headquarters of the BBC: presentation of an exhibition organized by the radio station, an exposition of the relations between General de Gaulle and the BBC before the tapestry made by Jean Lurçat, a gift of the French government in 1949, followed by unveiling of a commemorative plaque.

Accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron, the French president then paid tribute to General de Gaulle at the Royal Chelsea Hospital. At Carlton Gardens, the headquarters of Free France, the French Head of State presided over a military ceremony in the presence of 700 French veterans and 300 former “Tommies”, followed by a lunch for the French presidential couple and David Cameron and his wife Samantha at 10 Downing Street.

The tributes continued in the late afternoon in Paris, where the French President laid a wreath at the foot of the statues of General de Gaulle and Winston Churchill before heading on to the Fighting France Memorial at Mont-Valerian.