Please join us on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 to welcome our guest speaker The Lord Watson of Richmond, CBE, commanding speaker, business man, author and former President of the Liberal Party of the U.K.
Lord Watson will speak on ‘Churchill’s Legacy – Two Speeches to Save the World’. In 1946 Churchill gave two speeches that alerted the world to the threat posed by Stalin. Lord Watson will explain how and why Churchill exposed this threat, calling for US and European unity. In Fulton and Zurich, Churchill presented a new prospect of recovery and hope – both for him as a political pioneer, and for the world.
Both speeches caused huge controversy. Truman warned that the Fulton speech would cause a “shindig” as the Roosevelt family denounced it as a threat to America’s relationship with Good Old Uncle Joe. Churchill’s call for Franco-German partnership in Zurich also infuriated Charles de Gaulle, yet the speeches were integral to the emergence of NATO and the Marshall Plan, committing the USA to Europe’s economic recovery. Later, Truman wrote to Churchill that his predictions were becoming more true every day and in the end, even de Gaulle changed his mind. The confrontation between Russia and the West and the idea of a United States of Europe remain as vital then as now in shaping international relations.
Lord Watson, an award winning BBC broadcaster for over 20 years, is a partner of the CTN Group, a pre-eminent multi-media consultancy and production company. He is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a former Chairman. Lord Watson was elected as High Steward of Cambridge University for life in 2010. He is a Patron of the Churchill Archives at Churchill College and Chairman of the Cambridge Foundation. He is also a Churchill Fellow at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.
A former President of the Liberal Party, Lord Watson played a leading role in the merger between the British Liberal Party and the Social Democrats. He was appointed CBE in 1985 and raised to the peerage in 1999. He is a committed internationalist and serves as the President of the British-German Association, Vice-President of the English Speaking Union, and for six years Chairman of the Council of Commonwealth Societies.
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Location: The Vancouver Club, 915 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, B.C.
Time: Reception and Cash Bar starts at 5:45 pm, Dinner in Grand Ballroom at 7:00 pm
Cost: $150 each for a Member of the Society, spouse, partner or an immediate family member
$170 each for a non-Member (includes wine with dinner)
Please note the dress code is black tie or mess kit (or business suit and tie)
To register, please contact us.