Charles de GAULLE urges combat a week after his appeal.

Charles de GAULLE (1890.1970)

Letter signed to Yvonne Salmon.

A page in-4° typewritten and signed in turquoise ink.

London. St Stephen's House. June 27, 1940.

“Those who still have the freedom must unite with resolution to resist and to win. »

Moving letter from the General in the early hours of his British exile, less than ten days after his appeal of June 18, 1940, receiving Yvonne Salmon's help in working for national resistance.

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“Madam, The feelings expressed in your letter are a precious encouragement to me. I thank you very warmly. In these tragic hours in the history of the world, all those who still have the freedom must unite with resolution to resist and to win.   I have taken note of your offer of contribution , and I would be happy if you came to my secretariat to examine how you could most usefully collaborate in our task. Please accept, Madam, my respectful homage. C. de Gaulle. »

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Yvonne Salmon (1885-1965), army nurse during the Great War, then professor of French civilization at the University of Reading, offered her services to General de Gaulle the day after the appeal of June 18. An active propagandist for Free France through the Alliance Française, she gave countless conferences and published in 1943, in London, the first biography of the leader of Free France entitled "General de Gaulle", which was republished in Algiers in 1945 and in Paris in 2010. After the war, she remained a convinced Gaullist.