Rod’s Military History Talks

I gave two talks on the Battle of Waterloo in June 2024, which was the 209th Anniversary of the battle. Both talks were in East Grinstead to different groups, but organised by the same person who is on the committees of both clubs.

The first talk was to the East Grinstead U3A on 5th June 2024. This was attended by some 70 people in a large hall. The second talk was to the Oddfellows, attended by 29 people on 17th June. Both talks were well received and raised money for Combat Stress, the Military Charity which supports former members of the Armed Forces with mental health issues.

From 10th to 13th May 2024, I participated in a Clan MacArthur International Clan Gathering at Portsonachan, on the banks of the very beautiful Loch Awe, some 75 miles north of Glasgow. This was an area where many MacArthurs had come from, although many generations of my own family prior to 1840 had come from the tiny island of Ulva, to the west of Mull.

We had 45 members of Clan MacArthur participating in the gathering, half from USA plus several from Canada and Australia. There were a number from UK, I coming from the furthest south and one family from the Shetlands.

During the Gathering I gave my new talk on “The MacArthurs in the 45” on two occasions. That gave some background to the 1745 Jacobite Rising, plus details of those MacArthurs known to have served in the Jacobite Army and those known to have served on the opposite side supporting the British Government, as part of the Argyll Militia and Highland Independent Companies. Such splits in Clan loyalties were not uncommon during the 1745 rising.

The talk went down very well and I have been asked to produce a PDF version for the Clan website.

On 21st March I gave my talk on the Battle of Dettingen to the Probus Club of Royal Tunbridge Wells. I am a member of that Club and I normally give the Club one talk per year.

This talk was on a Battle which most of the audience knew very little about and it was extremely well received.

On 10th January 2024, I gave my talk “Getting my Knees Brown” to the Crowborough Probus Club. This talk is about my time in Aden (now part of Yemen) as a 21 year old 2nd Lieutenant in 1964/65. It was very topical, since it was the day after the Houthi rebels in Yemen had launched multiple missiles at HMS Diamond and US Warships in the Red Sea, all of which were shot down, and the day before the US and UK struck back against the Houthi rebel bases. 

I have been on HMS Diamond when I went to Malta in September 2017 for the unveiling of a plaque by their Prime Minister to commemorate the Royal Engineer Bomb Disposal teams serving in Malta during World War II. The evening after the unveiling we had a cocktail party on HMS Diamond, a Type 45 Destroyer, which visited Malta especially for the occasion.

Just before I left Aden in 1965, I also had a trip on a Destroyer, HMS Cambrian, in order to take part in a reconnaissance of Abd al Kuri island in the Indian Ocean, to see if it was suitable to build an airfield, I cover this interesting visit in my talk.

On Thursday 17th August, I gave my talk on the Lines of Torres Vedras to the Probus (Professional & Business) Club of Royal Tunbridge Wells. I am a member, and former President, of that Club so did not ask for a fee or donation.

This was the fourth time which I had given this particular talk. I had updated it and it went down very well.

I gave my first talk on the Battle of Dettingen to the Bexhill Hanoverian Study Group on Tuesday 20th June. It was only a few weeks after I had finished it.

The talk went down very well and raised some money for Combat Stress, the charity which supports members and former members of the Armed Forces with mental health problems.

On 10th June I gave my talk on “The Story of Medal” to the Royal British Legion Branch in Tunbridge Wells. This was the fourth time which I had given it to various groups.

This talk covers my Dad’s service as a Merchant Navy Officer in World War II on Gibraltar Convoys, Atlantic Convoys, Russian Convoys and D-Day Landings plus how I researched this so I could claim his posthumous Arctic Star Medal.

It was well received and raised some funds for the Mission for Seafarers.