The first half of the branch’s lecture series has seen some excellent presentations that have drawn large audiences of members. We remain keen to encourage schools attendance. The most important announcement is a reminder that all meetings in 2019 will take place at St. Nicolas Hall. The problems of County School parking are behind us. We will miss the County’s super screen and thank them for being such good hosts in our period of exile.
In our last newsletter we were looking for someone to help update and maintain our branch website. Our current website was set up some time ago and had become rather outdated. A volunteer did step forward -Derek Linney – and he has done a splendid job in bringing the website up to date for which many thanks. Whilst there is further work to do the society has a new website which provides a new look and more up to date information for members and prospective members. It is accessed via the existing URL: www.historicalassociationsurrey.com but has been built using a Content Management System – WordPress – which enables us to have a richer visual environment while also making it easy to add new content – such as lecture reports or announcements.
One additional date for your diaries is ‘a Nigel Saul’ excursion to Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on the 16th MARCH 2019. See emails and website for details. Dorchester is chiefly celebrated for its beautiful abbey church, one of the oldest Christian sites in England, founded by the missionary, St Birinus, in 634. At one time it was the seat of a bishopric until the bishops moved off north to Lincoln. Today the village is a pleasant backwater, its great church now the parish church, but a busy and thriving one.
At our meeting on 26 February we will holding one our popular second hand book sales. We would welcome donations of good quality history books or historical fiction. Books will retail at £1 for paperbacks and £2 for hardbacks. Pease bring your donations on the evening together with some spending money! This is a chance to refresh your bookshelves in the New Year.
The programme for the next few months sees a litany of world experts address us. This year the programme has been shaped by two themes-Empire or more specifically the end of empires and secondly the evolution of Britain.
January 22nd sees Professor John Darwin address Not so much an empire more a world-system: the British empire in global perspective.
The final lecture of the year sees Professor Peter Heather consider 21 May 2019 – Why do Empires end? Ancient Rome and the Modern West
The second theme has Professor David Edgerton view twentieth century Britain. A review in the Spectator noted that ‘ in the first decades of the 20th century, cosmopolitanism and imperialism were central’ but that ‘‘Churchill inherited a global empire and emerged as the leader of a nation’;
His recently published book is to be my reading of an upcoming beach holiday. 26 February 2019 – The Rise and Fall of the British Nation
An old friend of the branch, Professor Lawrence Goldman, who has been charged with the custody of the Disraeli Papers, addresses a subject that is very topical. Although the centuries and circumstances are different-the core question remains-Can the Conservative Party survive? Disraeli managed in the nineteenth century. The current issue remains uncertain. 19 March 2019 – Disraeli and the Transformation of Victorian Conservatism, 1846-1880
The dominance of London both within Britain and as a world city is self-evident. Yet it was not always so. Dr. Ian Archer looks back to the beginnings of London rise to world influence
30 April 2019 – From Satellite City to Global City: London 1500-1700
More detail on the speakers and their topics is available on the branch website.
We are about to contact speakers for the 2019-20 session. If I could appeal to any teachers, please let us know what topics might interest your students. Contact our schools coordinator Graham Searle at gwsearle@yahoo.co.uk or our Hon Sec. Rollo Crookshank at crookshank@starkmann.co.uk
Seasons greeting to all
Chris Mitchinson
Chairman