Many of us have heard about Bletchley Park, Enigma, Alan Turing and the vital work done there to shorten the Second World War. But much less is known about Dilly Knox and his “gels”, a bunch of Polish mathematicians from the University of Poznam, and a London Post Office engineer called Tommy Flowers, and the vital role that they all played.
The Positive, face of colonialism: banishing the Arab slave trade, Mlosi, Jumbe, Yao cheifs.
The Negative face of colonialism: Hut tax, Thangata, Livingstone Estate, Africans in European war. John Chitembure uprising 1916
Charles George Gordon – AKA Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum. A Victorian hero prised from the true Victorian heroic mould!
Why was it that a Royal Engineer General, who decided to take over a town in the middle of a desert, became a national hero and brought down a government! Uncover the truth about Gordon of Khartoum and why this crude, insubordinate and untrustworthy junior general would appeal to both the British people and Queen Victoria, in true stiff upper lip style!
My first encounter with Jaguar, that started a lifetime involvement. The history of Jaguar, where it all started and some significant early models. The introduction of what Enzo Ferrari said was “the most beautiful car in the world” the E Type Jaguar and its development from the early Jaguar racing cars. The current situation at Jaguar and its future.
A presentation on life at sea as an officer in general cargo vessels in the late 1970s, covering ship operations, port & cargo working, in the days of paper charts, sextant sights & simple radar … before containerisation lowered costs by up to 80%+ and changed seafaring life.
Most people have heard of Mountain Rescue, but few have heard of Lowland Rescue. Ian Malins, Search Manager and Trustee with Warwickshire Search and Rescue will explain how volunteers help the police search for high risk, vulnerable missing people across Coventry and Warwickshire and answer all of your questions.
The Lunar Society in Hook Norton for which most of these stories were initially created is named in homage to this august group, who drove huge transformations in botany, chemistry, commerce to serve the needs of the emerging middle class, engineering, geology, medicine, philosophy, and society to name just a few
You could very easily claim that they drove many of the most important changes that happened in the Industrial Revolution.
The Staplehurst rail crash of June 9th 1865, which claimed 10 lives, might have passed unnoticed but for the presence of Charles Dickens among the survivors. Returning from France on the ill-fated boat train from Folkestone to London, Dickens was to be profoundly affected by the experience.