Military History Group - Scroll down for calendar
The military History Group continues to grow. We had a useful and productive talking shop at Arborfield on the 19th April. There were a number of things which I hoped to get out of the meeting; is the group happy with the way in which things are being run and to take a peep into the future to see what we might usefully do next. Everybody there thought that things are going well and should remain as they are.
With forty members now on the books (not all of whom attend regularly), nevertheless it seemed sensible for our first port of call to be a look at where we might meet in the future as the REME museum, which has served us well for nearly three years, is becoming uncomfortably small for our larger attendances. Several alternatives were discussed, including the Pinewood social club, St. Sebastian’s and the Methodist Hall. In the end we decided that convenience and parking space dictated that we should go back to Woosehill and the upper room has been booked for the rest of the year.
We discussed some possible study subjects that had been sent to me by Email. These included:
· World War 1 - The Battle of the Somme,
· The English Civil War - The Battle of Newbury, the Battle of Reading and the siege of Oxford. Some of these could include visits.
· The Spanish Civil War and the birth of the Blitz.
· Risorgimento – the Garibaldi and the formation of modern Italy.
· The War of 1812.
· The Indian Mutiny.
· The Boxer Rising.
· South American Independence – Simon Bolivar, Admiral Cochrane and Engineer White.
· About a hundred others!!
We then went on to discuss a range of talks for next year and many people volunteered to have a go, selecting from the list above and even adding a couple of new items. I have put these into a draft programme for 2008, the earliest we have ever been ready for the following year. See below for details.
The subject of preparing presentations for use with the electronic projector system came up. Using the laptop and projector is not a problem as there is almost always someone present familiar with its setting up and use. The preparation of visual aids using PowerPoint is, however, quite a different matter and the possibility of some sort of short course in PowerPoint was raised but not brought to a conclusion.
We continued with our programme for the year, visiting the National Army Museum in London in June, the Military Aviation Museum at Tangmere in July before taking August off. We restart on the 20th September with a talk on Gallipoli and the Dardanelles campaign in 1915/1916 and this is followed by a talk on the capture of Gibraltar in October and the battle of Koniggratz in November.
If any members want to join the group or would just like to come along and listen to a particular talk, please give me a ring on 01344-774386.
Don Macdonald