Terry Cudbird: Walking the Retreat

Terry will describe the retreat of the Allied Armies in August 1914 as seen through the eyes of one French lieutenant who was next to the British in the line. He walked the exact line of march of this lieutenant’s unit. The story concludes with the successful defence of Paris at the Battle of the Marne and the lieutenant’s capture later by the Germans on the Aisne. He will briefly describe research he did to discover the lieutenant’s relatives and what happened to him after 1914 and reflect on how the war has been remembered in memoirs after the event

After publishing Walking the Retreat for the 100th anniversary in 2014 Terry completed a doctorate at Oxford on the impact of the Great War on two French regions and has just published a book on post-1918 France. He has also had work published in an academic journal on French history and has also written a book called Walking the Hexagon, describing a long hike he did around the circumference of France.