Atkin 2 colours 30/4/03 4:54 pm Page 1 It is widely assumed that the French in the Cover illustration: A French soldier and two of his British Isles during the Second World War comrades, coming from Dunkirk, receive a snack THE were fully-fledged supporters of General after landing in Great Britain, 1940. Courtesy of Photos12.com – Oasis de Gaulle, and that across the channel at FORGOTTEN least, the French were a ‘nation of THE ATKIN resisters’. This highly provocative study reveals that most exiles were on British FORGOTTEN FRENCH soil by chance rather than by design, and Exiles in the British Isles, 1940-44 many were not sure whether to stay. FRENCH Overlooked by historians, who have Exiles in the British Isles, 1940-44 concentrated on the ‘Free French’ of de Gaulle, these were the ‘Forgotten French’: The forgotten French refugees swept off the beaches of Dunkirk; servicemen held in camps after the Franco-German armistice; Vichy consular officials left to cater for their compatriots; and a sizeable colonist community based mainly in London. This is a really interesting and important work, which will Drawing on little-known archival sources, this study examines the hopes and fears of be of interest to scholars of twentieth-century Britain and these communities who were bitterly France because it throws light on so many other issues. divided among themselves, some being attracted to Pétain as much as to de Dr Richard Vinen, King’s College, London Gaulle. It also looks at how they fitted into British life and how the British in turn responded. The author finds that while the public was often charitable, the Government was suspicious of their loyalties and even considered general internment. Illustrated throughout, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the British and French experiences of the Second World War. Nicholas Atkin is Senior Lecturer in the School of History, University of Reading NICHOLAS ATKIN 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page i The forgotten French 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page ii For Claire, Charlotte and Benjamin 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page iii The forgotten French Exiles in the British Isles 1940–44 NICHOLAS ATKIN Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page iv Copyright © Nicholas Atkin 2003 The right of Nicholas Atkin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 0 7190 6438 4 hardback First published 2003 111009080706050403 10987654321 Typeset in Minion by Action Publishing Technology Ltd, Gloucester Printed in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page v Contents List of figures and maps page vii Preface viii Acknowledgements xii List of abbreviations xv 1 The context of exile: communities, circumstances and choices 1 The Gaullist legacy 5 Communities and circumstances 13 Piecing together the fragments 18 Tentative conclusions 22 2 The misfortune of exile: refugees 30 Preparing to receive 31 Arriving: ‘We of this country wish to offer you our great sympathy’ 34 Late arrivals: The Royal Victoria Patriotic School 40 Les pauvres types 48 Catering for the refugees 55 Travail, famille, patrie: the everyday life of refugees 64 Conclusions 80 3 The conflict of exile: servicemen 92 Arriving: Narvik, Dunkirk, Compiègne and Oran 93 Counting heads: les effectifs 100 At the races: life in the camps 103 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page vi vi Contents The Randolph Hotel, Oxford: a polite exile 113 Recruiting and proselytising 116 Repatriation 123 Conclusions 129 4 The surveillance of exile: the Vichy consulates 141 The diplomatic community in London: adieu 143 Agents consulaires or agents provocateurs? 152 La conduite consulaire: conduct unbecoming 160 Endgame 168 Conclusions 176 5 The tradition of exile: la colonie Française 185 The pre-war French community: a statistical overview 187 The colonist response to defeat: organising, rallying and integrating 194 The British government and the colons: internment and restrictions 225 Conclusions 237 6 Conclusion 250 Appendices 261 Bibliography 273 Index 292 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page vii Figures and maps Figures page 1 De Gaulle’s words immortalised in stone on the front of Carlton Gardens. (Photo by Claire Atkin) 12 2 Carlton Gardens, the headquarters of the Free French. (Photo by Claire Atkin) 16 3 The Royal Victoria Patriotic Buildings, Wandsworth. (Photo by Charlotte Atkin) 42 4 The first edition of the Journal du Camp. (Photo by Reading University Library) 121 5 The statue of de Gaulle in Carlton Gardens. (Photo by Claire Atkin) 252 Maps 1 Principal ports visited by French refugee fishermen and their families in 1940. (Map drawn by Claire Atkin) 53 2 The sailors’ camps in the North and Midlands. (Map drawn by Claire Atkin) 103 3 The principal Vichy consular offices in 1940. (Map drawn by Claire Atkin) 151 4 The London of the forgotten French: outer areas. (Map drawn by Claire Atkin) 195 5 The London of the forgotten French: inner areas. (Map drawn by Claire Atkin) 195 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page viii Preface It is sometimes easier to explain what a book is not about before stating its purpose. This is very definitely not another study of de Gaulle, the Free French and the troublesome relations they enjoyed with their British hosts, although inevitably the name of the general appears repeatedly in the text. Countless words have already been spilt on these subjects, and it is likely that more will follow, if only to satiate the curiosity of a British public which, astonishingly, still seems surprised that Churchill and the Free French leader were not always the best of allies.1 Nor is this another account of those secretive and murky rela- tions that the Vichy government conducted with the Foreign Office during 1940–42. This, too, has been an overworked topic, maybe in an effort to counter those disingenuous and tedious arguments continu- ously peddled by unreconstructed Pétainists in France who claim their hero was involved in a double game with the Germans, outwardly proclaiming his adherence to collaboration while secretly negotiating with Churchill to shield the French people from greater suffering, thus deserving to be counted among the pioneers of resistance. It should be further stressed that this is not primarily an examination of those writers and thinkers, most notably Raymond Aron and André Labarthe, who made London their temporary home in 1940. To be fair, we still await a synthesis of French intellectual activity in wartime London, just as we need an overall account of exiled intellectuals in Britain’s capital. We are, though, well served by the autobiographies of the protagonists themselves, and there is no shortage of biographical studies of the most prominent exiled figures, French and otherwise. And, finally, this is not an attempt to write the response of British public opinion to events in France. So dramatic were the ups and downs of the Vichy regime that the reactions within Britain have been 2499 Prelims 7/4/03 2:40 pm Page ix Preface ix amply mapped out, their subsequent course well plotted, and their importance recorded at every twist and turn. All this the book is not. It is instead an exploration of the lives of those French men, women and children who discovered themselves, usually by happenstance ahead of design, on British shores in May–June 1940. These communities constitute what I have termed the ‘forgotten French’, repeatedly ignored by historians who have preferred to concentrate on de Gaulle and other more visible exile groups whose experiences have been deemed of greater significance. Crudely speaking, the ‘forgotten French’ comprised the following: some 4,000 refugees jostled out of northern France by the battering of Guderian’s Panzers; maybe 12,000 stranded servicemen, principally sailors, survivors of Narvik and Dunkirk and those unlucky enough to be arrested in British ports at the time of Mers-el-Kébir, who would not be returned home until the close of the year; an indeterminate number of Vichy officials, possibly 200 or so consular and mission staff, together with their wives and families, left behind to keep the wheels of petty bureaucracy turning, despite the breaking off of diplomatic rela- tions between Britain and Vichy; and a French colony of 12,000 strong, which decided to stay put on British soil, despite the fact that maybe 18,000 colons chose to return home with the outbreak of war or at some point during the drôle de guerre. The objective of this book is, then, to lift these groups out of obscu- rity – to scrutinise their existence, to assess the material conditions in which they lived and to probe their concerns, which were as much to do with social issues as they were to do with political ones. An under- lying aim is also to monitor how the British government and public reacted to these strangers in their midst, foreigners who, unlike the Norwegians, Poles and Belgians, did not possess a government-in- exile, thus raising doubts about their loyalty to the Allied cause.