For all enquires and for events where pre-booking is required, please contact:

Jill Kilsby MA, MBA, 8 Purley Oaks Road, Sanderstead, Surrey, CR2 ONP

Email: jillkilsby2012@live.co.uk | Tel: 07957 627783

Branch President: Vacancy

Honorary Vice-Presidents: Professor David Stevenson, Mrs Chrissie Ganjou

Vice-Chairs: Jill Kilsby, Hedley Sutton

Programme Secretary: Thabo Stuck

Treasurer: Jill Kilsby 

Central London Branch Programme 2025 

Lectures start at 2pm on Saturdays at St. Anne’s Church, 55 Dean Street, W1D 6AF, Allen Room, first floor (lift available). 

Bus routes 14, 19, 24, 29, 38, 176 all stop nearby.

Nearest underground stations are Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road.

Mainland Rail:  Charing Cross Station is a ten-minute walk.

Lectures are free to H.A. Members - £3 Non-Members. Associate Membership: Individual £12.50 Joint Family £20

Saturday, 1^st February 2025
The Global Middle Ages
Professor Catherine Holmes

Professor Catherine Holmes, Professor of Medieval History at Oxford University, is an historian of the politics and the culture of the Mediterranean world, including Byzantium, between the tenth and early fifteenth centuries.  She is particularly interested in frontiers in relations between different religious and ethnic groups, in comparative political culture and in the Global Middle Ages and has written extensively on these themes.

 
Friday 7^th February 2025, 2 pm 
British Library Exhibition Visit
Doreen Tayler is organising a visit to the British Library exhibition: 'Medieval Women: In Their Own Words'. Meet at British Library Reception at 2 pm.

Doreen’s contact e mail is: doreentayler@hotmail.com

 
Saturday 15^th February at 2.30 pm
Guided Walk: Dickens London 1
Ann Archbold, Qualified London City Guide, is offering a series of three walks this year relating to Charles Dickens.

Although not a Londoner by birth, Charles Dickens knew London intimately and it is the setting of most of his novels. Ann Archbold will lead the first of three walks looking at the places Dickens knew and lived in and talking about some of the locations and characters in his novels.

Further walks will be on Saturday 15 March and Saturday 12 April.

Pre-booking and payment required. Please contact Jill Kilsby (jillkilsby2012@live.co.uk) with any queries, for further details and a booking form. The cost is £5  for Central London HA Branch members and £9 for Non Central London Branch members. 

 
Saturday 15^th March 2025 at 2.30pm 
Guided Walk: Dickens London 2
For details see above -pre-booking and payment essential.

 
Saturday 29^th March 2025
Widows of the Ice
Anne Fletcher

Anne Fletcher is a historian and writer. She has a successful career in heritage and has worked at some of the most exciting historic sites in the country, including Hampton Court Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Bletchley Park and Tower Bridge.  She is the great-great-great niece of Joseph Hobson Jagger, ‘the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo’ and he is the subject of her book ‘From the Mill to Monte Carlo’.  Her search for his story started with only a photograph, a newspaper article and the lyrics of the famous song.

At our meeting, Anne will be talking about her latest book, a biography of the three women widowed by the expedition of Robert Scott in which she provides an alternative version of a story that we thought we knew.  It’s an example of how looking at history from a new perspective can entirely change the accepted narrative. Scott's widow Kathleen has a direct link to our venue. Her brother Rosslyn Bruce was Vicar of St Anne's for a time.

 
Saturday, 12^th April 2025, at 2.30pm 
Guided Walk: Dickens London 3
For details, see other Dickens Walks above. Pre-booking and payment essential.

 
Saturday, 7^th June 2025
Has the 2^nd World War Burma Campaign ever been ‘Forgotten War’?
Dr. Philip G. Woods

Philip Woods taught at what is now the University of West London, Kingston University, London and New York University in London. He is now retired. His most recent book Managing the Media in the India-Burma War 1941-1945: Challenging a ‘Forgotten War’, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2023 and has now appeared in paperback. He has written a number of articles and books, including ‘Reporting the Retreat: War Correspondents in Burma’.

Talk Synopsis: There is something of a myth that the Burma campaign, the longest land campaign fought by British, Commonwealth and Indian forces in World War Two was a ‘Forgotten War’ fought by a ‘Forgotten Army’. This talk will explain how this myth arose and challenge its accuracy. The role of the media was crucial in this respect and British Army media management, which started very much on the defensive, was able, particularly after the appointment of Lord Mountbatten as Supreme Commander South East Asia Command in 1943, to step up media coverage in all forms for Burma operations.