From JFK to Oasis the History Society roll with it all

The History Society has a busy summer of great lectures and tours planned. Here is a brief summary of some of the planned events.

Thursday 9th July - The JFK assassination, The Umbrella Man and Other Stories What We Talk About When We Talk About the JFK Assassination with Martin Fitzgerald Online Talk from GMH LG9 1pm

This talk is prior to Edinburgh Fringe Fest Yes Really!

Microsoft Teams meeting

Want to join this event then get in touch with Rober Baker today at Robert.Baker@dft.gov.uk

Dallas, 22 November 1963. The main event is supposed to be on Main Street – crowds fifty deep, a blizzard of ticker tape. A few blocks away in Dealey Plaza, the scene is quieter: a handful of people, clear skies. A man with an umbrella. A woman with a polaroid. A dressmaker with vertigo. These are the strange, true stories of the ordinary people who opted out of the main event, only to spend the rest of their lives unable to leave it.

This is a book about memory, about how we construct our shared history, and about what happens when your life is defined by a single, fleeting moment. It's about a group of real people who opted out of the main event before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, only to find themselves accidental witnesses to the most scrutinised six seconds of the twentieth century.

Martin Fitzgerald is an author and screenwriter from London. His first book, Ruth and Martin’s Album Club (2017), was a collection of reviews of classic albums written by celebrities upon hearing them for the first time. It featured contributions from Richard Osman, Ian Rankin, Bonnie Greer and many more. Martin’s particular interest is taking well-worn stories, approaching them from a new angle and finding the comedy and absurdity within them.

Thursday 30th July Belgravia Walk - Belgravia The Myth that made millions or a tale of Two Cities 5.30pm 2 hour walk Meet in Victoria Station outside WH Smith

Cost £10 pay by cash or card on the day

Belgravia was indeed a ‘myth that made millions’, close to royalty at Buckingham Palace, with a whole social scene exemplified by the TV series ‘Belgravia’. This walk starts at Victoria Station outside WH Smith and finishes on the Buckingham Palace road side of Victoria Station.

The walk explores not only the different styles and social nuances of the squares but also the churches and how the place has changed in modern times with regeneration on the agenda to revitalise the area. Belgravia is now known to be a home for many embassies. It is where the Bellamy family from the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs lived. Hear about the glitterati, gangsters, famous politicians, film stars and writers such as Mary Shelley are associated with the area.

Wednesday 9th September Mavericks: Britain’s Secret Mission to the Caspian Sea

Online Talk from GMH Room 5.7 1pm

Writer and former BBC journalist Nick Higham gives an illustrated talk on his new book about a group of British mavericks who set out on an almost impossible task in the chaotic Caspian Sea at the end of World War I.

As regimes crumbled, an unlikely maverick band of British soldiers, diplomats and spies were sent in to block Turkish advances, counter Bolshevik threats, and secure Baku’s vital oil. Drawing on personal diaries and top secret archives, he uncovers eccentric heroes and extraordinary intrigue in this forgotten theatre of war where rules were made to be broken.

Higham introduces a list of characters including expedition leader Lionel Dunsterville, Scottish aristocrat Ranald MacDonell, who smuggled roubles for the war effort, soldier Edward Noel, who was held hostage for 65 days in terrible conditions, Toby Rawlinson, a brilliant inventor, and spy Reginald Teague-Jones. Their task was to block the advancing Turks, hold back the Bolsheviks, prevent a Turkish-inspired Jihad in India, and secure an oil route. Higham says the result was a story of boldness and intrigue in a forgotten corner of the war where rules were made to be broken.

Nick Higham spent 30 years at the BBC including hosting Meet the Author on the news channel. He is the author of The Mercenary River.

Wednesday 16 September

Rock'n'Roll London tour with Adam Scott-Goulding Tour Starts at 6:30 (18:30)

Meeting Point: Tottenham Court Road Tube (exit 1) and end near Piccadilly Circus.

It’s the Rock & Pop History tour. From The Beatles to Bob Marley, from David Bowie to Amy Winehouse, all musical roads lead to London!

Cost £10 pay by cash or card on the day

The People…

During our tour Johnny Rotten will be busted for drugs, The Rolling Stones will make their debut album and Jimi Hendrix will play his last gig. We’ll meet the original Ziggy Stardust and Oasis will pose in Soho for the most famous album sleeve of the 90s.

The Places…

In Denmark Street (scene of the famous Oasis album cover) we’ll look at the history of the music business. In Soho we’ll find the birthplace of British Rock and Pop music. On Carnaby Street there’s Pop Culture from fashion to drugs. All against a backdrop of 400 years worth of entertainment history in London’s famous West End.

The Stories…

Tales of drunkenness and cruelty! Scandals, shady business deals and music music music – the entire story of Rock & Pop is here. This tour is your backstage pass.

Tuesday 22nd September Assassins and Templars: A Battle in Myth and Blood Steve Tibble Online Talk from room GMH 5.7 1pm

In this talk, Steve Tibble discusses the Assassins and Templars, are two of history’s most legendary groups. One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Violently opposed, they had vastly different reputations, followings and ambitions. Yet they developed strikingly similar strategies, and their intertwined stories have, oddly enough, uncanny parallels.

Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction. He shows how, outnumbered and surrounded, they survived only by perfecting ‘the promise of death’, either in the form of a Templar charge or an Assassin’s dagger.

Death, for themselves or their enemies, was at the core of these extraordinary organisations. Their fanaticism changed the medieval world. And, even up to the present day, in video games and countless conspiracy theories, they have become endlessly conjoined in myth and memory.

Steve Tibble is a research associate at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of ‘The Crusader Armies’, ‘The Crusader Strategy’, ‘Templars’, and ‘Crusader Criminals’.

Join the History Society Today

Want to get involved or attend a History Society event then get in touch with Robert Baker at Robert.Baker@dft.gov.uk