Charles Corbin

André Charles Corbin (4 December 1881 – 25 September 1970) was a French diplomat who served as French ambassador to the United Kingdom before and during the early part of the Second World War from 1933 to 27 June 1940.

Early life He was born in Paris on 4 December 1881.

Corbin was greatly angered by the British attack on the French naval base at Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940 and said that he could not in good conscience remain in a country that had just attacked his own nation. Corbin was also further angered by the decision of the new Churchill government to extend the British blockade of Germany to France after 21 June 1940 and frankly Francophobic tone of the British media in the summer of 1940, which openly mocked the French as cowards and defeatists for signing the armistice with Germany. For an Anglophile like Corbin, the sustained anti-French bashing of the British media, which sneered at and mocked the French for the misfortune of losing to Germany was a very bitter blow and hurt him deeply. In the summer of 1940, with Britain facing a German invasion, there was a tendency on the part of the many in the British media to blame the French for the United Kingdom's predicament as it far easier to blame their country's problems on foreigners, which explains the extended bout of French-bashing in 1940.

Corbin arrived in Rio de Janeiro in August 1940, where he was described as being a deeply depressed man, who was convinced that Germany was going to win the war and the "New Order in Europe" could not be challenged. In December 1940, Corbin made his peace with the "New Order in Europe" by saying in a public statement he awaited for instructions from Marshal Petain in Vichy for what his role would be in the "New Order". He then denied making the statement to his friends, which caused him a major credibility crisis, with many uncertain about where he stood. In February 1941, Corbin arrived in Lisbon, where Daniel Roché, the second secretary of the French legation in Dublin, tried to persuade him to go back to Brazil. Sir Ronald Campbell, the British ambassador to Portugal, wrote after meeting Corbin that "he struck me as rather bitter and distinctly flabby.... There is no fight in him and he gives the impression of a broken man". Campbell further wrote that Corbin was extremely embittered by Mers-el-Kébir, which he took as a personal betrayal, and that Corbin was obsessed with "the ghastly spectacle of starving children" in France, which he blamed on the British blockade.

In March 1941, Corbin arrived in Madrid, where Hoare, who was now serving as the British ambassador to Spain, reported to London that Corbin was a "defeatist" who believed Germany was "invincible". Once Corbin arrived in France later in March 1941, his "black mood" finally lifted, and he refused an offer from Marshal Petain to serve as the ambassador in Washington. Instead, Corbin retired to his cottage in southern France, where his private letters became sharply critical of Vichy. However, he did not take part in the Resistance and said that he was too old for such activities. The British historian Nicholas Atkin described Corbin's attitude as ambivalent, as he was opposed in principle to the "New Order" but was also convinced for a considerable period of time, at least until 1942, that Germany was going to win the war and that resistance was futile.

Death Corbin died on 25 September 1970 at Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Books

Lacouture, Jean. De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (1984; English ed. 1991),