| Main Performers | Charles De Gualle,
M Diethelm - speakers |
| Orchestra or Band | Band of the Welsh Guards,
Free French Band |
| Set List | Pre-meeting Concert (Band of the Welsh Guards) including:
'Madelon! Madlon! Madelon!'
'La Regiment de Sambre et Meuse' (Free French Band)
Meeting:
Speech - The Objects of Free France (Charles de Gaulle),
Resolution,
Speech (M. Dietholm) |
| Performance Notes | The event was broadcast by the BBC within the framework of the broadcast 'Les Français parlent aux Français'.
"LONDON RALLY OF FREE FRENCH.
DE GUALLE TO SPEAK.
More than 10,000 people have applied for tickets to the Free French rally at the Albert Hall on Saturday. "Only 6,000 will be able to be present, owing to police regulations," Capt. Boucher, vice-president of "Les Francais de Gran-Bretagne," organiser of the meeting, said yesterday.
"Both Gen. de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, and M Diethelm, Free French National Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Labour and Information, will speak."
(The Daily Telegraph, 14 November 1941)
"NEW FREE FRENCH PLEDGE AT MASS VICTORY RALLY.
Under the double-barred Cross of Lorraine, beneath which Joan of Arc fought for France's freedom five centuries ago, Gen. de Gaulle, head of the Free French Forces, now fighting for that same freedom, faced thousands of his compatriots in a crowded Albert Hall on Saturday afternoon.
They had gathered from every part of Britain, these Free French people, to demonstrate their united purpose to fight by the side of Britain.
Large as it is, the great amphitheatre could have been filled three times over. Thousands of applications for seats had been rejected and many people who had travelled long distances to attend had to be turned away.
Inside, a stirring scene was set. Across the vast width of the hall was flung a banner bearing the words in letters a yard high: "Aujord'hui 510eme Jour de la Lutte du Peuple Francais pur sa liberation. [Today is the 510th Day of the French People's Struggle for their Liberation]"
Behind it, above the platform, the French tricolor covered the organ pipes. The great organ itself was hidden behind a 10ft Croix de Lorraine, symbol of Free France's will to victory.
For three-quarters of an hour, while the tremendous audience assembled and packed the arena and balconies, the band of the Welsh Guards played those songs of the last war which French and British soldiers sang as they marched together through the Flanders' mud..."
(The Daily Telegraph, 17 November 1941) |
| Related Archival Material | B&W Photograph (RAHE/3/1941/1) |