9th December 2021 at 10.30am
Tickets: £35.00
Venue: The Gurkha Museum

Armchair Battlefield Tour – The British Army in the Napoleonic Wars

The British Army, once described by a (French) critic as being ‘a mob of flogged criminals led by coffee house fops’  in fact developed during the Napoleonic Wars into a finely honed killing machine.  It was the only professional, all volunteer army in Europe and this talk describes how it was recruited and trained, where its officers came from and how the purchase system worked.

The lecture is delivered by Major Gordon Corrigan MBE. Major Corrigan served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles and the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He is an acclaimed military historian who has published a number of books, and presented a number of TV series. He lectures widely, and conducts battlefield tours worldwide.

The Armchair Battlefield Tour is followed by a two-course curry lunch.

To book please visit: 
​https://thegurkhamuseum.co.uk/event/lecture-and-curry-lunch-the-british-army-in-the-napoleonic-wars/

Peak Performers-Mountaineering Exploration within the Brigade and Beyond
30th September 2021 at 6pm
Tickets-£50.00
​Venue-The Gurkha Museum

The Brigade of Gurkhas has a long tradition of mountaineering excellence, join us for an evening of lectures and hear the stories and first hand accounts from experts who have summited some of the world’s most formidable peaks.
Speakers include record breaking adventurer and former Gurkha Officer Adrian Hayes, Brigade Mountaineering expert Col Mike Kefford OBE and 2017 Everest Expedition Leader Lt Col Andrew Todd MBE.
Tickets are priced at £50.00 and include welcome drinks, an evening of lectures and a two-course curry dinner.

To book please visit:
​https://thegurkhamuseum.co.uk/event/peak-performers-an-evening-of-lectures-and-curry-supper/

On Online Presentation by Brigadier (Rtd) Ben Barry

Date: 22nd July 2021 at 6.30pm
Tickets: Free, however donations are greatly appreciated to help support the museum
Venue: Online via Zoom hosted by The Royal Green Jackets 

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dominated international politics in the first decade of the 21st century and their impact continues to be felt today.  The Rifles and the regiments that came together to form it, not least the RGJ, played a leading role in both wars.  Despite their unpopularity, both wars offer lessons for current and future armed conflict.

Brigadier (retired) Ben Barry, IISS Senior Fellow for Land Warfare, discusses these lessons and the findings of his latest book, Blood, Metal and Dust, which draws on front-line memoirs, declassified reports and original IISS research.  This in-depth study of the operations undertaken by US, UK and coalition forces explores how rapid military victories in both countries turned into prolonged complex and costly stabilisation campaigns.  It concludes that Iran ‘won’ the Iraq war, while the Taliban is closer to success in Afghanistan than the US and its allies.

At this event, Ben Barry will discuss the key campaigns, operations and battles that shaped the wars.  He will also analyse the formulation and execution of US and British strategy alongside the conduct of military operations by international forces, as well as that of the insurgents, militias and proxies that opposed them.

Brigadier (retd.) Ben Barry is the Senior Fellow for Land Warfare for the International Institute for Strategic Studies.  Prior to joining the IISS, he served with the Light Infantry, taught recruits at the Rifle depot 1979-80 and commanded 2LI in the armoured infantry role where he was joined by a dozen Green Jackets for an exciting tour in Bosnia.  He was Director of the Army Staff Duties, commanded a multinational brigade in Bosnia and led the team that wrote the British Army’s final analysis of its campaign in Iraq.  He is also the author of The Road from Sarajevo: British Army Operations in Bosnia, 1995-1996 and Harsh Lessons: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Changing Character of War.

This online presentation will take place on Thursday 22 July 2021 at 6.30pm.   Please email the Museum Curator for joining instructions: curator@rgjmuseum.co.uk 

Donations can be made by visiting: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1008453

An online presentation by Captain Charles Blackmore, hosted by The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum
Date: 20th May 2021 at 6.30pm
Tickets: Free, however donations are greatly appreciated to help support the museum
Venue: Online via Zoom

         In 1985, four Royal Green Jackets – Capt Charles Blackmore (3RGJ), Lieut James Bowden (3RGJ), Riflemen Chris Shelley (1RGJ) and Mark West (2RGJ) – set out on camels from Wadi Rumm, south Jordan, with members of the Howeitat tribe to retrace some 700 miles of the camel journeys made by Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab Revolt in World War 1.  The significance was twofold: such a commemorative venture following the routes described by T E Lawrence and mapped out in Seven Pillars of Wisdom  had not been undertaken before, and it was the 50th anniversary year of Lawrence’s untimely death following a motorbike accident near Bovington, Dorset.

What these riflemen learned about Lawrence, and his role in the Arab Revolt, was second only to what they learned about the desert and living as bedu.  Dressed as Arabs they rode and walked their camels south east to the Saudi border, across the flint desert or as asuwan as General Sir John Glubb (‘Glubb Pasha’, later the founder  of the Arab Legion) described it, before turning north to Syria and returning south via the Dead Sea, Petra, and back to Wadi Rumm.  Beset with difficulties from bedu intrigues, camels with dysentery, getting lost and living as nomads for over a month, these camel-riding Green Jackets developed a bond with their Howeitat camel handlers which matched only the historical importance of the arduous journey they embarked upon.

Charles Blackmore’s talk, illustrated with slides, forms the basis of his book about the expedition In the Footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia.

Charles was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets in 1978 serving with 3RGJ in N Ireland and Cyprus, the Rifle Depot, 1RGJ in Belfast, seconded to 6th Gurkha Rifles, Staff College, followed by command of R Coy 3 RGJ in Gibraltar and South Armough before leaving the Army in 1993 after 2 years in the MoD.  His other 4expeditions include retracing the route of the Retreat to Corunna on the 175th anniversary, and a first crossing of 1000 miles of the Taklamakan Desert, China by camel.  Currently he is CEO of the commercial intelligence and investigations company, Audere International Ltd.

This online presentation will take place on Thursday 20th May 2021 at 6.30pm.  Please email the Museum Curator for joining instructions: curator@rgjmuseum.co.uk 

Donations can be made by visting: ​ uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1008453

Armchair Battlefield Tour – The American Revolution 15th April 2021  at The Gurkha Museum

A revolution? A rebellion? A civil war? A fight for liberty against an oppressive colonial power? Opportunism? A French ploy to obtain control of the West Indies? This talk will strip away the patriotic froth surrounding the events of 1775 – 1783 and examine the facts of the war, the personalities involved and the underlying causes of discontent.
The lecture is delivered by Major Gordon Corrigan MBE. Major Corrigan served in the 6th Gurkha Rifles and the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He is an acclaimed military historian who has published a number of books, and presented a number of TV series. He lectures widely, and conducts battlefield tours worldwide.
The Armchair Battlefield Tour is followed by a two-course curry lunch

Date: 15th April 2021 at 10.30am
Cost: £35.00

To book, please visit: ​ 

"War in the Green Mountains of Oman - Jebel Akhdar 1958-59"
An Online Presentation by Brigadier Hugh Willing CBE
6.30pm Thursday  21st January, 2021
Relations between the Sultan of Muscat and Imam Ghalib Bin Ali of Nizwa, leader of the interior Omani Arabs, was exacerbated in 1953 by Saudi Arabian claims on the oil field at Buraimi Oasis and their provision of military equipment to the Omani rebels.  Matters came to a head in 1958 when the SAS were brought in to dislodge the Omani rebels from their mountain stronghold on the Jebel Akhdar - The Green Mountain. 
The SAS assault on the 9,000ft ridge remains the stuff of legends, and has since been described as one of the most spectacular raids by the British Army in the post-World War Two era.  In fact the Jebel Akhdar campaign would prove to be a turning point in the history of the SAS, which saved them from disbandment so that they could carry on unconventional war-fighting...which they do to this day.


Hugh Willing was a professional soldier for 36 years before retiring to his wife's family home in East Sussex in 2007.  He served with The Royal Green jackets and 2nd KEO Gurkha Rifles in many part of the world and was an Instructor at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and at the Army Staff College Camberley.  During his final posting in Oman as the Defence Attaché at the British Embassy for four years , he was closely involved in supporting British operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the Horn of Africa.  He was born in Kenya and speaks Swahili, Arabic and Gurkhali, and has travelled widely in Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Arabia and the Far East both in a military and private capacity.  He now travels the world on small cruise ships as a lecturer in British Military and Colonial History.
If you wish to join this online presentation please email the curator for the link and instructions - curator@rgjmuseum.co.uk 
​

"Foe to Friend: The British Army in Germany since 1945"
An Online Presentation by Peter Johnson
6.30pm Thursday 19 November 2020
Conquerors.  Occupiers.  Allies.  Friends.  The British Army's relationship with Germany since 1945 has certainly been complex.  From the end of the Second World War to 2019, the Army was based there in large numbers.  from occupying a defeated and destroyed country to -
standing on the front line in the Cold War, to using it as a base to deploy across the world, Britain's reasons for being in Germany changed.  But for 75 years more than a million British service personnel - and their families- called in home.
This talk will explore how the Army evolved in those 75 years, and how the relationship between the Army and Germany has changed.  Germany has been at the heart of the British Army's story since 1945.  It is a story of moving from foe to friend.

Dr Peter Johnston is Head of Collections Research and Academic Access at the National Army Museum.  As the Museum's senior military historian, Peter is responsible for managing and curating exhibitions, developing research strategies, working with partners in academia and the Army, and supporting the museum's public programme and developing programme content.  He has acted as an expert and accompanying academic on battlefield tours from Flanders to the Falklands.
Peter's specialisms range across British military history from 1815 to the present day, but he has a particular interest in, and has published on, the post-1945 British Army, the lives of U.K. veterans and military culture, and propaganda in times of conflict.  Most recently, Peter has published an authorised history of the British military's time in Germany since 1945 entitled, British Forces in Germany: The Lived Experience, and curated the National Army Museum's brand new special exhibition, Foe to Friend: The British Army in Germany since 1945.
If you wish to join this online presentation please email: curator@rgjmuseum.co.uk for joining instructions.

Half Term Halloween activity packs! For a small donation you can pick up a pumpkin pack from The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum front desk. Included in the pack is a small polystyrene pumpkin with some googly eyes, sparkly gems and Halloween stickers to decorate your pumpkin with! All you need at home is some paint!
You can pick up an activity pack between Wednesday 28th October-Saturday 31st October. The museum is open 10am-2.30pm (last entry 1.45pm).
We have limited packs available so please message us if you would like to reserve one.

Date: 18th February to 22nd February 2020
Venue: The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) Museum

Speaker: Rob Griffiths
Venue: The Kincaid Gallery, The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum
Date: Thursday 21 November 2019
Time: 6:15pm
Tickets: £20 (or £17.50 for friends of the RGJ Museum) per head including drink and canapes
Booking: https://shop.rgjmuseum.co.uk/evening-talk--21-nov-2019-1665-p.asp or 01962 828549

The 5/60th were the first rifle battalion in the British Army and they fought throughout the Peninsular War, against the forces of Napoleon; they have long been forgotten and overlooked Regiment, some would say unfairly overshadowed by the 95th Rifles.  Not only did the 5/60th Rifles have the honour of being the first rifle battalion in the British army, they won more battle honours than the 95th during the Peninsular War.
 
Raised in the American colonies in 1756 as the 62nd (Royal American) Regiment to defend the thirteen colonies against attack by the French and their Native American allies, and later deployed to the West Indies, by 1797 a 5th battalion had been raised on Barbados, with additional companies formed on the Isle of Wight, and equipped entirely with rifles.  The troops of the 5th battalion were so effective that Sir Arthur Wellesley recommended their use to the divisional commanders describing them as the “most useful, active and brave troops in the field”.  This is the story of their service in that long campaign recounted by discussing some of the extraordinary, distinctly roguish, characters in that Regiment.  You will hear tales of looting, murder and treachery, but also steadfastness, loyalty and heroism.
 
Tickets cost £20.00 (or £17.50 if you are a friend of the museum) and include a drink and canapes after the talk. Tickets must be purchased prior to the talk:
01962 828549
https://shop.rgjmuseum.co.uk/evening-talk--21-nov-2019-1665-p.asp
​

Speaker: Piers Storie-Pugh
Venue: The Kincaid Gallery, The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum
Date: Thursday 24 October 2019
Time: 6:15pm
Tickets: £20 (or £17.50 for friends of the RGJ Museum) per head including glass of wine and nibbles
Booking: https://shop.rgjmuseum.co.uk/evening-talk---24-oct----2019-852-p.asp

Speaker: David Erskine-Hill
Date: 19th September 2019
Venue: The Kincaid Gallery, The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum
Time: 6:15pm 
Tickets: £20 (or £17.50 for friends of the RGJ Museum) per head including glass of wine and nibbles
Booking: ​https://shop.rgjmuseum.co.uk/evening-talk-19th-sep—-2019-1651-p.asp

Date: 14th and 21st August 2019
Venue: The Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) Museum