Friends Programme, September 2007At the September Friend’s meeting we were pleased to welcome Hugh Gibbons - who spoke to us at an April lunchtime meeting on “Tales of the Unexpected” - and who gave a talk on “Thank-you stories from the Tsunami”. In December 2005, Hugh Gibbons visited homes, schools, tents, families, barracks, boats, offices, cafes, beaches, villages and other locations in Banda Aceh in Indonesia – the city raked by the tsunami just after 8am on Boxing Day 2004. His task? To report on some of the humanitarian recovery projects funded by the people of the UK. He met many survivors – and saw at first-hand the work of international and local NGOs. It was for all who attended a riveting and moving talk. For the October Friend’s meeting, which is a joint meeting with Ascot Round Table and Ascot 41 Club, we are privileged to welcome Historian Peter Caddick-Adams who will speak on " First and Second World War battlefields of Northern France, Belgium and Holland ". Peter is a regular contributor on the History Channel and lectures in military history and strategic studies. He has led over one hundred battlefield terrain studies for military audiences of several nationalities, and at all levels of command, to a wide variety of destinations including the United States, Italy and Hong Kong and is a frequent visitor to the First and Second World War battlefields of Northern France, Belgium and Holland. He joined the Territorial Army in 1985 and served during 1996-7 as the official NATO historian covering operations in Bosnia, based in Sarajevo. He is currently completing two British Army unit histories, has contributed to a military doctrine handbook, is a major contributor to the Oxford Companion to Military History published in 2000, and has contributed to The Reader's Guide to Military History, 101 Years of Warfare, Lightning Strikes Twice, and The Battle of France and Flanders 1940: Sixty Years On (all 2000). He is the author of By God They Can Fight! (1995) and numerous articles in the British Army Review, Army Quarterly & Defence Journal, and Royal United Services Institute Journal. His next book is entitled, The Yugoslav Wars.
Peter Short |