The Military History Group

Oxford & Cambridge Club

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The Military History Group

Oxford & Cambridge Club

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Military History Interest Group

Date: To be confirmed · 2027

Speaker: To be confirmed

Format of the evening

Drinks at 6pm, talk beginning at 6.30pm, with dinner served at 7.30pm followed by discussion after dinner, with a 9.30pm finish.

Ticket price includes a drinks reception and two course supper with House wines.

Timings: 6pm for 6.30pm  •  Dress: Club Dress Code  •  Tickets: £65 per head

To be the first to hear when 2027 talks open for booking, sign up to the mailing list.

Oxford & Cambridge Club · Est. 1830

Conversation
over dinner.
History
in good company.

A distinguished speaker, a gathering of O&C members for an evening of thoughtful discussion on military history, conflict, and the forces that shape our world — centred around the table, with a talk followed by dinner and open discussion.

See the Next Talk →

Est. 1830 · Oxford & Cambridge Club

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana The Life of Reason, 1905
Next in the Diary
19
November 2026 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

The Blood in Winter: A Nation Descends, 1642

Dr Jonathan Healey

By the end of 1641 England had arrived at something like peace. The armies had disbanded, Parliament had secured its right to sit, and both radicals and royal servants were adjusting to an altered future. Then came the winter. On 4 January 1642 Charles I marched on Westminster at the head of an armed party to arrest five Members of Parliament — and set in motion the events that would take the country to war. Dr Jonathan Healey, Associate Professor in Social History at Kellogg College, Oxford, joins the Group to explain how a nation splintered into bloodshed at such terrifying speed. His The Blood in Winter recreates the claustrophobic atmosphere of those months: rowdy protestors in the streets, London under coal smoke, and remarkable but flawed men facing choices none of them wanted. Discussion continues over dinner.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

Join the Waiting List →
18
February 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Holding the Gate: The Siege of Rhodes and the Defence of Europe, 1522

Edoardo Albert

In 1522 a doctor’s son from Bergamo defied the Council of Ten, gave up a rising career in the Venetian army, and slipped into a fortress that everyone expected to fall. Rhodes was the island stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller — the Order of St John, the last of the great crusading orders still holding the frontier of Christendom — and against them Suleiman the Magnificent had brought the full weight of the Ottoman empire. Gabriele Tadino — soldier, miner, military engineer — had been forged in the Machiavellian chaos of the Italian Wars, the conflicts that ended the Middle Ages and bred an entirely new kind of soldier. He faced odds that promised, at best, the loss of everything he had won, and more likely his life. This is the story of the siege that helped decide the shape of the modern world — and of the man who chose to hold the gate.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

18
March 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Ukraine: The Latest

Francis Dearnley & Dominic Nicholls

Francis Dearnley — Executive Editor (Audio) at The Telegraph and co-host of Ukraine: The Latest, the world’s most listened-to podcast on the Russia–Ukraine war with over 140 million downloads — will be joined by co-host Dominic Nicholls, Associate Editor (Defence) and a 23-year British Army veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. A fellow Club member sanctioned by Russia for his reporting, Francis draws on interviews with President Zelensky and senior NATO commanders to examine the evolution of warfare in the drone age, and Ukraine’s transformation from arms importer to world-leading exporter of anti-drone technology. A rare chance to hear from both hosts in the MHG format, with discussion continued over dinner.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

22
April 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Speed, Aggression, Surprise: The Untold Origins of the SAS

Tom Petch

The official origin story of the SAS is a myth. Tom Petch — former Troop Commander in 22 SAS — tells the real story of how the world’s most famous special forces unit was forged in the wreckage of Dunkirk and the long bar of Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo. Drawing on newly declassified archives and his own first-hand military experience, his bestselling Speed. Aggression. Surprise. has been called ‘awesome’ by Andy McNab and ‘page-turning and revelatory’ by Sir Ranulph Fiennes — an account of how an unlikely band of renegades invented an entirely new method of war.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

17
June 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Ukraine and the Transatlantic Alliance

Rear Admiral Tim Woods CBE

Rear Admiral Tim Woods CBE — British Defence Attaché in Kyiv at the moment of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and most recently Defence Attaché in Washington — offers a rare double vantage on the defining security challenge of our time. In Kyiv he commanded British Defence Staff across Eastern Europe at a turning point in European security; in Washington he led the UK’s military engagement across all branches of the US armed forces. A fellow Club member, he draws on unrivalled operational experience to examine what the Ukraine war reveals about modern conflict, and about the transatlantic alliance it has reshaped.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

16
September 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Neither War Nor Peace: Policing the Hybrid Threat

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor KPM

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor KPM heads UK Counter Terrorism Policing. He joins the Group to describe a threat that sits uneasily between policing and warfare: foreign states, acting increasingly through paid proxies, taking direct action inside the United Kingdom. Arson attacks on Ukraine-bound supplies, politically motivated violence against community targets, unexplained drone activity over military sites and the recruitment of British youths through encrypted channels. He will set out how the threat is understood and how Counter Terrorism policing is equipped to counter it — followed by discussion over dinner.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

14
October 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

The Longest Afternoon — Waterloo

Professor Brendan Simms

Twenty years of war had left Europe exhausted when Napoleon returned from exile to threaten yet another generation of fighting. The matter was decided at a small Belgian village, in a single afternoon. Professor Brendan Simms — Professor of the History of International Relations at Cambridge and founder of the Centre for Geopolitics — reconstructs the extraordinary four-hour stand of the King’s German Legion at La Haye Sainte, drawing on previously untapped eye-witness reports to recapture the fear, chaos and sheer chanciness of the afternoon that shaped the modern world.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

18
November 2027 · Thu
Talk & Dinner

Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War, 1931–1941

Professor Jonathan Fennell

The Second World War is usually said to have begun in September 1939. Professor Jonathan Fennell sees it differently: as a "Greater Second World War" that began with the crises of 1931 and was not settled until 1949. In the first volume of his new trilogy, he traces the decade in which the international order came apart. He draws campaigns, home fronts and diplomacy across every continent into a single global narrative. The book is built on new research in fourteen languages and more than fifty archives. It sets political leaders alongside soldiers, civilians and the women whose war is so often overlooked, and shows how a world that thought itself civilised descended into barbarity. His previous book, Fighting the People’s War, won the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History.

Venue
71 Pall Mall, London
Arrive
6.00pm for drinks reception
Talk
6.30pm · approx. 50 minutes
Dinner
7.30pm, with discussion at 8.45pm
Close
9.30pm
Dress
Jacket, tie and tailored shirt (or equivalent)

Click anywhere for full event details →

The Oxford and Cambridge Club, 71 Pall Mall
71 Pall Mall · the Group’s home at the heart of Clubland
A Club dining room in similar style to the one the Group meets in
A Club dining room · drinks before, dinner after
About the Group

An evening with an expert,
and a conversation round the table.

The Military History Group is a member-led special interest group within the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, London. The Group hosts leading historians, authors, military practitioners and subject specialists for discussion-led evenings in an intimate, dinner-table setting. Events are designed to be both informative and conversational, combining expert presentation with the opportunity for questions and discussion.

Recent speakers have included distinguished historians such as Dr Helen Fry, Professor Huw Bennett, Professor Stephen Badsey, Saul David, Giles Milton and Professor Helen Parr, alongside senior serving and former military officers and diplomats.

All members of the Club are very welcome to attend. No specialist knowledge or prior experience is required — the Group brings together members with a wide range of backgrounds and levels of familiarity with military history. An inquisitive mind and a willingness to engage are all that is needed to enjoy and contribute to the discussion.

“What I liked most was that it didn’t feel like a seminar — it felt like a really good dinner party with a guest worth listening to.”
— First-time attendee, 2025
I.

Everyone is welcome

If you are an O&C member with even a passing interest in history or world affairs, you belong here. No prior expertise assumed; no particular background expected.

II.

Round the table, not round the lectern

The evening is built around conversation. The speaker opens, we hear them out, and then the discussion belongs to the room — every voice has the floor, and some of our best exchanges have come from unexpected quarters.

III.

Speakers of genuine standing

Leading experts drawn from academia, writing, the services, and public life — the kind of people you’d cross London to hear. They come because the evening itself is a pleasure.

IV.

An evening that ends well

Hard close in the room at 9.30pm. Conversation continues, by long tradition, in the Morning Room for those inclined to stay.

Format of the Evening

Attendance is typically limited to 24–36 members to preserve a collegiate, discussion-led atmosphere.

  • 6.00pm
    Informal drinks reception
  • 6.30pm
    One-hour presentation from our speaker
  • 7.30pm
    Two-course dinner with house wines and coffee
  • After dinner
    Round-table Q&A and discussion
  • 9.30pm
    Formal close; conversation continues in the Morning Room
“The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.”
Winston Churchill 1944
2027 Programme

The 2027 season planning is well in hand. Click any talk for full details; subscribe to the mailing list to hear as soon as bookings open.

Dr Jonathan Healey
Thu, 19 Nov 2026

The Blood in Winter: A Nation Descends, 1642

Dr Jonathan Healey

By the end of 1641 England had arrived at something like peace. The armies had disbanded, Parliament had secured its right to sit, and both radicals and royal servants were adjusting to an altered future. Then came the winter. On 4 January 1642 Charles I marched on Westminster at the head of an armed party to arrest five Members of Parliament — and set in motion the events that would take the country to war. Dr Jonathan Healey, Associate Professor in Social History at Kellogg College, Oxford, joins the Group to explain how a nation splintered into bloodshed at such terrifying speed. His The Blood in Winter recreates the claustrophobic atmosphere of those months: rowdy protestors in the streets, London under coal smoke, and remarkable but flawed men facing choices none of them wanted. Discussion continues over dinner.

Fully booked — join the waiting list →

Edoardo Albert
Thu, 18 Feb 2027

Holding the Gate: The Siege of Rhodes and the Defence of Europe, 1522

Edoardo Albert

In 1522 a doctor's son from Bergamo defied the Council of Ten, gave up a rising career in the Venetian army, and slipped into a fortress that everyone expected to fall. Rhodes was the island stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller — the Order of St John, the last of the great crusading orders still holding the frontier of Christendom — and against them Suleiman the Magnificent had brought the full weight of the Ottoman empire. Gabriele Tadino — soldier, miner, military engineer — had been forged in the Machiavellian chaos of the Italian Wars, the conflicts that ended the Middle Ages and bred an entirely new kind of soldier. He faced odds that promised, at best, the loss of everything he had won, and more likely his life. This is the story of the siege that helped decide the shape of the modern world — and of the man who chose to hold the gate.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Francis Dearnley & Dominic Nicholls
Thu, 18 Mar 2027

Ukraine: The Latest

Francis Dearnley & Dominic Nicholls

Francis Dearnley — Executive Editor (Audio) at The Telegraph and co-host of Ukraine: The Latest, the world's most listened-to podcast on the Russia–Ukraine war with over 140 million downloads — will be joined by co-host Dominic Nicholls, Associate Editor (Defence) and a 23-year British Army veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. A fellow Club member sanctioned by Russia for his reporting, Francis draws on interviews with President Zelensky and senior NATO commanders to examine the evolution of warfare in the drone age, and Ukraine's transformation from arms importer to world-leading exporter of anti-drone technology. A rare chance to hear from both hosts in the MHG format, with discussion continued over dinner.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Tom Petch
Thu, 22 Apr 2027

Speed, Aggression, Surprise: The Untold Origins of the SAS

Tom Petch

The official origin story of the SAS is a myth. Tom Petch — former Troop Commander in 22 SAS — tells the real story of how the world's most famous special forces unit was forged in the wreckage of Dunkirk and the long bar of Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. Drawing on newly declassified archives and his own first-hand military experience, his bestselling Speed. Aggression. Surprise. has been called 'awesome' by Andy McNab and 'page-turning and revelatory' by Sir Ranulph Fiennes — an account of how an unlikely band of renegades invented an entirely new method of war.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Rear Admiral Tim Woods CBE
Thu, 17 Jun 2027

Ukraine and the Transatlantic Alliance

Rear Admiral Tim Woods CBE

Rear Admiral Tim Woods CBE — British Defence Attaché in Kyiv at the moment of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and most recently Defence Attaché in Washington — offers a rare double vantage on the defining security challenge of our time. In Kyiv he commanded British Defence Staff across Eastern Europe at a turning point in European security; in Washington he led the UK's military engagement across all branches of the US armed forces. A fellow Club member, he draws on unrivalled operational experience to examine what the Ukraine war reveals about modern conflict, and about the transatlantic alliance it has reshaped.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor KPM
Thu, 16 Sept 2027

Neither War Nor Peace: Policing the Hybrid Threat

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor KPM

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor KPM heads UK Counter Terrorism Policing. He joins the Group to describe a threat that sits uneasily between policing and warfare: foreign states, acting increasingly through paid proxies, taking direct action inside the United Kingdom. Arson attacks on Ukraine-bound supplies, politically motivated violence against community targets, unexplained drone activity over military sites and the recruitment of British youths through encrypted channels. He will set out how the threat is understood and how Counter Terrorism policing is equipped to counter it — followed by discussion over dinner.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Professor Brendan Simms
Thu, 14 Oct 2027

The Longest Afternoon — Waterloo

Professor Brendan Simms

Twenty years of war had left Europe exhausted when Napoleon returned from exile to threaten yet another generation of fighting. The matter was decided at a small Belgian village, in a single afternoon. Professor Brendan Simms — Professor of the History of International Relations at Cambridge and founder of the Centre for Geopolitics — reconstructs the extraordinary four-hour stand of the King's German Legion at La Haye Sainte, drawing on previously untapped eye-witness reports to recapture the fear, chaos and sheer chanciness of the afternoon that shaped the modern world.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

Professor Jonathan Fennell
Thu, 18 Nov 2027

Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War, 1931–1941

Professor Jonathan Fennell

The Second World War is usually said to have begun in September 1939. Professor Jonathan Fennell sees it differently: as a "Greater Second World War" that began with the crises of 1931 and was not settled until 1949. In the first volume of his new trilogy, he traces the decade in which the international order came apart. He draws campaigns, home fronts and diplomacy across every continent into a single global narrative. The book is built on new research in fourteen languages and more than fifty archives. It sets political leaders alongside soldiers, civilians and the women whose war is so often overlooked, and shows how a world that thought itself civilised descended into barbarity. His previous book, Fighting the People's War, won the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History.

Booking date to be confirmed — click for details →

“History is a vast early warning system.”
Norman Cousins Saturday Review, 1978
Good to Know

A few practical notes — the Club’s standing conventions, how bookings work, and a word on the arrangements that make the evening run smoothly.

Dress Code

The Club operates a formal dress regime. Gentlemen wear a tailored jacket, tie and fully button-fronted shirt fastened at the collar. Ladies wear conventional smart dress — a smart trouser suit, skirt or dress. Trainers and casual footwear are not permitted in the formal rooms. Shorts, sweatshirts, fleeces, tracksuits and t-shirts are never acceptable.

The dress code is strictly enforced; members and guests who do not comply will be refused admission to the dinner, and no refund will be offered. Full dress regulations →

Photography & Recording

Photography, filming and recording (audio and video) are prohibited throughout the Club house, and the Group enforces this policy at all events. This supports a candid and open environment — speakers often contribute on a basis akin to the Chatham House Rule, which allows them to speak more freely without their remarks being recorded, attributed or reported. Recordings of meetings are not made available.

Bookings & Waiting List

Bookings are made through the Club’s Members’ Events page when logged in as a Club member. If the event isn’t visible on the page, click “Book Online” at the top to see the full events listing. Inclusion on our mailing list does not guarantee a place.

If an event is fully booked, please join the waiting list — places frequently become available at short notice, and waiting-list size also helps us gauge whether a larger room is warranted. Book an event →

Dietary Requirements

Please flag any dietary requirements when booking through the Club’s events page — there is a field for this in the booking form. If you’ve already booked and need to add or amend a requirement, contact the Club’s Events Administration team (below) a week or so before the evening.

Books & Signings

Speakers sometimes bring copies of their latest book to sign and sell after dinner — cash only when they do. The Club’s Library Committee is supportive of our speakers, and their books often find a home in the Club’s collection.

Accommodation

The Club offers bedrooms for members wishing to stay overnight — useful if you’re travelling from outside London or would prefer not to make a late journey home after a talk. Rooms are bookable via the members’ area of the Club website. Book accommodation →

For administrative matters relating to an event — bookings, dietary requirements, access — please contact the Club’s Events Administration team at clubevents@oandc.uk.com.

“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”
Harry S. Truman On reading Plutarch’s Lives
From Our Archive

Every evening, back to 2019

Members have been gathering for talks of this kind since 2013. Our record of speakers and subjects is set out below by year — the breadth of subject matter is the thing. Open a year to see its talks.

20265 talks
  • 2026
    Pride and Fall: The British Army in Afghanistan, 2001-2014 Sergio Miller Read more →
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2026
    Korea - War Without End Dr Robert Lyman MBE
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2026
    Tunisgrad: Victory in Africa Prof Saul David
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2026
    The Rise and Fall of the British Army 1975-2025 Brigadier (retd) Ben Barry OBE
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2026
    Rhineland: Hitler's Last Defence, 1944-45 Anthony Tucker-Jones
    Campaign & Battle
20255 talks
  • 2025
    The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War Giles Milton
    Diplomacy & Statecraft
  • 2025
    Islands at War: From Occupation to Liberation in The Channel Isles during WW2 Nick Le Huray
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2025
    British Official Film and Photography on the Western Front 1914-1918 Prof Stephen Badsey
    History & Culture
  • 2025
    Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles 1966-1975 Prof Huw Bennett
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2025
    Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars Dr Helen Fry
    Intelligence & Special Operations
20246 talks
  • 2024
    Victory to Defeat: The British Army 1918-1940 Dr Robert Lyman MBE
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2024
    Stepped in so Far: Finding the Exit in Post-Conflict Environments The Hon Alice Walpole OBE
    Diplomacy & Statecraft
  • 2024
    Planning D-Day, 1944 Prof Stephen Badsey
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2024
    Deploying as a surgeon with the British Army in war and peace Lieutenant Colonel Darren Mann
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2024
    Sky Warriors: the story of British airborne in WW2 Prof Saul David
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2024
    Templars - The Knights Who Made Britain Dr Steve Tibble
    Armies & Institutions
20237 talks
  • 2023
    War on the Big Screen: Military History as imagined not experienced, the reality of being a film Advisor Andy Robertshaw
    History & Culture
  • 2023
    America's National Security Challenges from 9/11 to Today Dr Sohan Dasgupta
    Grand Strategy & Politics
  • 2023
    The Forgotten War - Conflict in the Far East during World War 2 Dr Robert Lyman
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2023
    Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine Prof Mark Galeotti
    Grand Strategy & Politics
  • 2023
    Britain and the First World War: 100 Years of Changing Perspectives Prof Stephen Badsey
    History & Culture
  • 2023
    Writing Military History Victoria Schofield
    History & Culture
  • 2023
    Napoleon - The Decline and Fall of an Empire: 1811-1821 Prof Michael Broers
    Grand Strategy & Politics
20224 talks
  • 2022
    Checkmate in Berlin - The First Battle of the Cold War Giles Milton
    Grand Strategy & Politics
  • 2022
    Penal Company on the Falklands: A Memoir of the Parachute Regiment at War 1982 Philip Neame
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2022
    The Evolution of the French Résistance: From Occupation to Libération (1940-1944) Dr Stuart Philip
    Intelligence & Special Operations
  • 2022
    Crusading Warfare, PoWs and the Gangsters of Cairo Dr Steve Tibble
    Campaign & Battle
20201 talk
  • 2020
    The Other Crimean War Prof Andrew Lambert
    Naval & Maritime
20199 talks
  • 2019
    Crimea: Russia's Southern Bastion Major General (retired) Mungo Melvin
    Grand Strategy & Politics
  • 2019
    Bomber Command 1942-45 – The Pathfinders, 5 Group and the Quest for Accuracy Richard Mead
    Air & Aviation
  • 2019
    Our Boys - The Story of a Paratrooper Prof Helen Parr
    Armies & Institutions
  • 2019
    Enigma Ralph Baker-Cresswell, Prof Joel Hamkins & Richard Mead
    Intelligence & Special Operations
  • 2019
    N'oubliez pas Oran! Operation Catapult and The Day We Shelled the French Stuart Philip
    Naval & Maritime
  • 2019
    The Spy at the Waterloo Ball Roger MacDonald
    Intelligence & Special Operations
  • 2019
    How did the First World War End? Professor Sir Hew Strachan
    Grand Strategy & Politics
  • 2019
    The Battle of Warsaw, Russo-Polish War 1920 Brigadier John Smales
    Campaign & Battle
  • 2019
    Seapower Professor Andrew Lambert
    Naval & Maritime
The Breadth of the Programme

37 evenings, from the Crusades to yesterday

Every talk since 2019, seen three ways: the era it belonged to, the kind of history it was, and who told it — the historian, the author, or the person who was there. Click a bar to see the evenings behind it. The lighter segments are the 8 evenings announced and still to come.

37Evenings since 2019
9 of 16, 1 comingEras covered so far
9Kinds of talk
29Speakers

By era

Ancient Near East & Biblical
–
Classical Greece & Persia
–
Rome & Late Antiquity
–
Early Medieval & Viking
–
Crusades & High Medieval
2
Late Medieval
–
Early Modern
2
Eighteenth Century
–
Revolutionary & Napoleonic
2 +1
Victorian & Colonial
1
First World War
4
Between the Wars
2
Second World War
12 +2
Cold War
5
Post-1990 & Contemporary
7 +3
Across the ages
2

By kind of talk

Campaign & Battle
10 +2
Armies & Institutions
7
Grand Strategy & Politics
6 +3
Intelligence & Special Operations
4 +1
History & Culture
4
Naval & Maritime
3
Diplomacy & Statecraft
2 +1
Air & Aviation
1
Policing & Security
1

By speaker

Academic historian
15 +3
Author & broadcaster
14 +3
Practitioner
8 +3

Click any bar. Talks with a full record open in the same card as the current programme.

Counted from the Group’s programme records, 2019 to 2026. Each talk has one era and one kind; a speaker who is both an author and served is counted under each. Talks that range across centuries are counted under “Across the ages”. 7 eras have never had an evening — suggest a speaker if you know someone who could fill one.

Your Voice

The programme belongs to the membership. Members are warmly invited to suggest potential speakers and share feedback on evenings attended. While we cannot always accommodate every suggestion — factors such as prior coverage and overall programme balance play a part — all submissions are appreciated and kept on file for future consideration.

After the Evening

Share your feedback

A short form, a minute to complete

Tell us what you made of a recent talk — what landed, what didn’t, and what would make the next evening even better. Anonymous if you’d prefer.

Open the feedback form →
Looking Ahead

Suggest a speaker

Historians, authors, practitioners — we’re listening

Know a historian, author, military practitioner or subject specialist who’d make a good evening? Suggestions from members are one of the most valuable ways we discover new speakers.

Open the suggestion form →
Military History Group — a call to join Stay in Touch

An invitation to the table

The mailing list is the best way to hear about upcoming talks. We circulate advance notice of events including PDF flyers, confirmed speakers and forward programme updates, and occasionally share post-event materials from speakers.

The list is intended for members of the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Bookings for all events are made directly through the Club’s Members’ Events page.

Form not loading? Contact the Convenor and we’ll add you.

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