Andrew's talk will trace the history of the Royal Naval Division from its baptism of fire at the 1914 defence of Antwerp to Gallipoli, the Somme and the Western Front.
It will show how the Sea Soldiers, hastily-formed, half-trained and woefully ill-equipped when they landed at Gallipoli in 1915, were transformed into an elite force fighting at the forefront of the Allied Hundred Days campaign in 1918. It will tell the stories of some of the 10,000 Scots who served in the RND and honour the 1,580 Scots who did not return.
Dr Andrew Jeffrey has a history Ph.D. from St Andrews University. He writes on military and maritime history and his published work includes a trilogy on Scotland’s role in the Second World War. Media work has included British, Dutch and French documentaries. He is working with the Dutch Navy in their search for the submarine O-13 lost in 1940. A former sea fisherman, Royal Navy reservist and RNLI lifeboatman, Dr Jeffrey led the Dundee International Submarine Memorial project to completion in 2009. His latest book, "A Taste for Treason:The Letter that Smashed a Nazi Spy Ring", was published in 2022.
Image: A Desperate Bomb and Bayonet Fight: A Bavarian "Sturmtruppen" Counter-Attack at Gavrelle Mill. Drawn by A. Forestier from material supplied by an eye-witness. April 1917.