On Friday, January 2008 Mr. David Freeman spoke on “Midwife to an Ungrateful Volcano: Churchill and the Creation of Iraq”. After serving as a nuclear submarine reactor operator in the U.S. Navy during the Cold War, David Freeman earned his Ph.D. in modern British history at Texas A&M University and now teaches at California State University, Fullerton. He has been a member of the Churchill Centre for over twenty years and is a regular contributor to “Finest Hour.” The subject of his doctoral dissertation, Churchill’s colleague Leo Amery, has the distinction of being the only British Cabinet minister to have climbed a mountain named for him in British Columbia.
On Thursday, February 21st 2008 we featured an evening with moderator Robert Brown together with veterans Frank Wade, Phil Booth, Derek Lester and Frank Leighton who spoke on the “Churchill, Malta and The Mediterranean War”. The four veterans shared with us their experiences in the battle for Crete; the sinking of the battleship HMS Barham by U331 captained by Baron Hans Dietrich Von Tiesenhausen (later a resident of West Vancouver); the Italian “human torpedo” attack on the battleships HMS Valiant & HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour; the convoys to supply Malta from Gibraltar and Alexandria, the most important of which was Operation Pedestal and the ordeal of the tanker Ohio, the most important convoy of the hole war in which over 35 major warships escorted 14 merchantmen, of which 9 were sunk The 5 which survived saved Malta; the internment of the crew of HMS Manchester by the Vichy French in Algeria; the Invasion of Sicily; the siege of Malta, (the George Cross Island), and the constant bombing and near starvation suffered by its inhabitants and defenders.
On Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 we featured another evening with speaker Dr. Andre Gerolymatos, Chair of Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University who spoke on “Churchill and Greece”. Andre Gerolymatos, was educated in classics and modern history at McGill University in Montreal. He specializes in Military and Diplomatic history, and has published several articles and books on these fields such as Espionage in Classical Greece and Guerilla Warfare and Espionage in Greece 1940-1944. From 1987-1996 he was the Director of the Hellenic Studies Center at Dawson College in Montreal and in 1996 he received the Hellenic Canadian Congress of BC Chair in Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University. In 1997 Dr. Gerolymatos was appointed Director of the Research Institute on Southeastern Europe at Simon Fraser University.
On Friday, June 13th, 2008 our Annual Banquet featured Admiral The Lord Boyce GCB, OBE, DL who spoke on the topic “Churchill, the Royal Navy and the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports”.
Admiral Michael Boyce, born April 2, 1943 in Cape Town, South Africa, is a member of the British House of Lords, a former First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy and Chief of Defence Staff. Educated at Hurstpierpoint College, a boarding school in England, he joined the Royal Navy in 1961. He was a submariner, commanded the submarines HMS Oberon, HMS Opossum and HMS Superb. He also commanded a frigate, HMS Brilliant. From 1986 to 1991 he held several posts at the Ministry of Defence, first as Assistant Director of Naval Plans and then as Director of Naval Staff Duties. From 1992 to 1995 he was Flag Officer, Surface Flotilla and from 1995 to 1997 he was Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command.
He was appointed Commander-in-Chief in 1997, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff in 1998 and Chief of Defence Staff in 2001. He was created a life peer as Baron Boyce of Pimlico in the City of Westminster in 2003 after retiring as Chief of Defence Staff.
On Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 our Annual General Meeting featured speaker Professor Travers, a former professor at the University of Calgary, gave a brief description of Churchill at the Admiralty from 1911; Britain and the Ottomans (Turkey) go to war in 1914; reasons for the Allied Dardenelles naval attack in early 1915 and Churchill’s role in planning such action; the naval failure and the reasons for such failure. The land campaign started on April 25th, 1915 and Churchill was out of the cabinet and in the background. The Gallipoli land campaign also failed. We discovered how Gallipoli was the formative event for the “coming out” of Australian and New Zealand forces in much the same way as Vimy Ridge was for Canada.