Online talks: This online talk starts at 19:45 and ends about 21:00. Participating is quick and easy. The only equipment you need is a computer, or a tablet, or a smart phone. Simply email wfa.nwkent@gmail.com for your link to the next video meeting. We'll also automatically add you to the mailing list to keep you updated with future events.
About the talk: With the notable exception of the Zeebrugge Raid of April 1918, the Dover Patrol is an unsung story, which deserves better. Set up early in World War I to command the Narrow Seas and stop German access to the Channel, it was commanded by three men of wholly differing personalities. It almost never had modern ships, and rarely had enough of the old ones for purpose. It contained few professional Royal Naval officers or senior rates, being instead composed of volunteers, reservists and what the Army called ‘the ash and trash, the jerks and clerks.’ This talk aims to fill that gap in knowledge, examining what they did, who commanded them and determine whether they were successful.
About the speaker: Robin Brodhurst was educated at Marlborough College and RMA Sandhurst, before being commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets, serving in Cyprus, Gibraltar, Belize and throughout the UK, including two tours in Northern Ireland. On leaving the Army he read History at Goldsmiths’ College, London University and completed a PGCE at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before teaching at Berkhamstead School, Ampleforth College, and Pangbourne College, where he was Head of History for 22 years. A keen naval historian he published a biography of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound – Churchill’s Anchor – in 2000, and edited The Bramall Papers in 2017. He lectures and reviews widely, often for the WFA, is a member of the BCMH, and was Hon. Secretary of the Navy Records Society for 12 years. He has just completed editing a collection of letters between his grandfather and Sir Donald Bradman, which is due to be published in February.