Founded in Paris in 1883, the Alliance Française was the first organisation to teach French around the world.
Initial board members included the renowned scientist Louis Pasteur and the writer Jules Verne. Today, it is the world's largest collection of French teaching associations, all non-profit-making organisations dedicated to teaching French.
The Alliance française in London
The Alliance Française in London, the largest Alliance in the UK, began in 1908 in the wake of the Entente Cordiale with the endorsement of the then French Ambassador Paul Cambon, signatory to the Entente Cordiale. "Il ne s'agit rien de moins que de donner une sorte de prolongement culturel à la politique de l'Entente Cordiale" (M. Bruézière).Initially, the London committee of the Alliance just coordinated tours of speakers round the country, organising school exchanges and lending books. The idea was to inform audiences of what was happening in France culturally and socially and also "les Français apprendraient à connaître les Anglais".
This mission took on an added significance when the Alliance française London became the acting headquarters for the world network after the Alliance française Paris was closed down when Paris was occupied in 1940 (on the grounds that it was a vehicle for propaganda). The Alliance française in London, as our minutes of 13th Jan 1941 record, saw its mission as becoming "le point de railliement de tous les Alliés" and issued aux quatre coins a news-bulletin called "Alliance Française ".
The Alliance was at the outset, and is today, a non-political organisation but the war made an exception of that. It was felt that certain cultural values had to be preserved and the Alliance aligned itself early on with De Gaulle and the Free French.
The Alliance française convened its first post-war Assemblée Générale in 1948. This was held at the House of Lords (Lord de La Warr was the Alliance president at the time). The Secretary General of the Alliance française in Paris, Marc Blancpain, in recognition of the role of London, came over to say this:
«L'Alliance n'est pas une administration, c'est une famille. Je vous apporte le salut de cette famille, non pas comme à une Alliance ordinaire, non pas non plus comme à une Alliance ancienne - vous êtes jeune encore, en tant qu'Alliance, vous avez 40 ans - mais comme à une Alliance qui fut pendant 4 ans - je le répète mais on ne le dira jamais assez - l'Alliance mère, la belle Alliance de l'espoir profond des temps misère. Je vous apporte aussi le salut des conférenciers que vous avez accuellis depuis l'hiver 1944. A peine étions-nous délivrés de l'ennemi - sauvés, sauvés comme le monde entier et grâce, d'abord, à la ténacité britannique - à peine étions-nous délivrés que ces conférenciers réapparaissaient chez vous.»
A place with a secret
Teaching in London started in 1955 but the London Alliance did not move to its permanent home at 1 Dorset Square (a grade II listed, late Georgian building) until April 1987, a building that had been the headquarters of SOE's RF section during the Second World War. Many French agents, including Jean Moulin and Pierre Brossolette, but also British colleagues in RF section such as Wing-Commander Yeo-Thomas and Captain Desmond Hubble, were briefed at 1 Dorset Square before being sent behind enemy lines. A plaque outside the building commemorates the brave people who left for missions in France and, in particular, the agents who did not return. About two hundred agents left from our building on missions in occupied France. 11 of them were women including Jeanne Bohec, whose book La plastiqueuse à bicyclette is in our library, and Alix d’Unienville, both still alive and contributing to our forthcoming history of some dangerous times that started at 1 Dorset Square! We are very proud of our building’s heritage and our own history and continue daily with our own mission of friendship and understanding.
There was some literary weight to our board in the post-war years when the Nobel prize winning poet T S Eliot was our president and the novelist Graham Greene joined us. It is also worth mentioning perhaps that a certain Jacques Cartier, one of the brothers in the Cartier family of jewellery fame, who opened Cartier London in 1902, was president of the Alliance française from 1932 to 1937. His successor, Etienne Bellenger, who became a board member of the Alliance, designed insignia for the FFF and for the Alliance. So there is some sparkle in our history as well!
The Alliance française is a truly authentic French experience, the next best thing to actually going to a French-speaking country. We are all here because we want to be, because we believe in the Alliance française. We love teaching and we love London and the great variety of people living or working here or just passing through. We are committed and enthusiastic sharers of French language and culture and we welcome everyone.
The Alliance française unites the global and the local; strengthened by an international network we also strive, in London in particular, to integrate with our host country by taking part in local community life while remaining apolitical and non-denominational. We are great believers in cultural exchange to our mutual enrichment and that dialogue starts right here in the London Alliance. The London Alliance supports 48 affiliated French clubs and there are 10 sister Alliances around the UK. As an apolitical, non-denominational organisation the Alliance was a pioneer in multicultural teaching. The Alliance française is truly broad based and inclusive.
To learn French is to enrich your relations with French speakers, to appreciate and participate more fully in a distinctive culture. Learning another language does broaden the mind, potentially increasing tolerance and deepening understanding, of one's own language and culture as well as the newly-studied language. Learning French will provide opportunities for mutuality and exchange in 55 countries (see about French) that are not possible without knowing the language. There is no better summary of the Alliance française mission than
« Nous avons, une fois pour toutes, tiré cette conclusion que c’est par de libres rapports spirituels et moraux, établis entre nous-mêmes et les autres, que notre influence culturelle peut s’étendre à l’avantage de tous et qu’inversement peut s’accroître ce que nous valons. Organiser ces rapports, telle fut la raison de naître, telle est la raison de vivre, telle sera la raison de poursuivre de l’Alliance française. »
Charles de Gaulle
Extrait du discours d’Alger du 30 octobre 1943
(60e anniversaire AF worldwide network)
Can you help?
We would be very interested to hear from anyone who has information about YVONNE SALMON, daughter of Professor A.V. Salmon. She was very active in the Alliance Française in London from 1920 to 1945 and we would like to know more about her, both during this period and after, in order to honour her work. If you have any information at all about Yvonne Salmon then please write to ::e-mail. |
