18May - LONDON - INDIAN REVOLT OF 1857 MEMORIAL

[moeen yaseen]

THE INDIAN MUTINY
Julian Spilsbury
12:15, 18 May 2007
RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET


About the event:
In an event to mark the 150th Anniversary of the Indian Uprising of 1857, RUSI are delighted to announce that Julian Spilsbury will lecture at the Institute on Friday 18 May.


Published to mark the 150th anniversary of the Indian Mutiny, Julian Spilsbury’s latest book is an epic story with surprising modern parallels. Fomer army officer-turned-TV scriptwriter, Julian Spilsbury takes us back to the desperate summer of 1857 when thousands of Indian soldiers mutinied. They murdered their officers, hunted down the women and children and burned and slaughtered their way to Delhi. The tiny British garrison at Lucknow held out against all odds; the one at Cawnpore surrendered only to be betrayed and massacred. Modern Indian accounts call this 'the first war of liberation', but as Julian Spilsbury reveals, 80 per cent of the so-called 'British' forces were from the sub-continent. Sikhs, Gurkhas and Afghans fought alongside small numbers of British soldiers. Together, they faced terrible odds and won. In the process they created a new army that would play a vital role in the Allied forces in both World Wars.

Julian Spilsbury is the military obituarist for the Daily Telegraph and a
script writer for The Bill, Taggart and Casualty. He is the author of
several thrillers including Night of the Bear and Vision of the Hunter. .

If you would like to attend this event please contact Helen Wood, Event Manager, RUSI: helenw@rusi.org or +44(0) 20 7747 2643

Event manager: Helen Wood, +44(0) 20 7747 2643


Military History Circle -

TE LAWRENCE : MAKING FRIENDS AND RUNNING
AN INSURGENCY IN THE ARAB WORLD
12:45, 13 Jul 2007
RUSI, Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET
James Barr

TE Lawrence: Making Friends and Running an Insurgency in the Arab World

James Barr will draw on the four years' research in the archives and in the Middle East that culminated in his book, Setting the Desert on Fire: Britain's secret war in Arabia 1916-18, to assess what lessons Lawrence of Arabia offers in defeating insurgents and building alliances in the Arab world, exactly ninety years after he swept into Aqaba.

James Barr graduated from Oxford with a first in Modern History, went on to write leaders for the Daily Telegraph and now works in the City. Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain's Secret War in Arabia, 1916-18 was published by Bloomsbury in June 2006.


If you would like to attend this event please contact Helen Wood on helenw@rusi.org

Event manager: Helen Wood, +44(0) 20 7747 2643