Grosvenor Square in the heart of Mayfair in London has often been called ‘Little America’, although it actually takes its name from the Grosvenors, the family who own the land there. It is where the first American Consulate in Britain was found, the consul being John Adams, who later became America’s second president. He was a Founding Father, and the wish to establish cordial relations with the former enemy nation is part of the reason he moved to a house in Grosvenor Square at the corner of Brook and Duke Streets, one which still stands.

Charles de Gaulle, a junior minister in a collapsing government and a relatively junior general in an army that was ceasing to exist, landed at Heston airport after a gruelling and perilous flight from Bordeaux, on Monday 17 June 1940. Few of his British hosts knew who he was, Winston Churchill being the exception. During his visits to France, Churchill had immediately noticed “a young, energetic general called de Gaulle.” `(In Gabriel Le Bomin’s biopic of de Gaulle, which features the early days of the two men’s relationship, Churchill is brilliantly played by Tim Hudson – who is also a London Blue Badge Guide!)