23
Oct
2024

SOE – Special Operations Executive – Churchill’s Secret Army

23-10-2024 7:30 pm

A tribute to the brave men and women agents who were parachuted behind enemy lines to ‘Set Europe Ablaze’. Their training and some of the missions, whilst some achieved amazing success, others ended in betrayal, concentration camps and death – all so young.

All proceeds to: The Royal British Legion

13
Nov
2024

Anti-colonial protestor on a post imperial plinth: John Chilembwe in Trafalgar Square

13-11-2024 7:30 pm

Why are monuments and memorials erected to people, invariably men? Why are many streets named after people from the past?  Who has agency to do this, and how long should monuments, memorials, street and building names remain in place?  When should monuments be taken down or used for another purpose?   These are old questions given new life with recent arguments over Britain’s imperial past and whether monuments to Rhodes and Colston ‘must go’.  This talk will include another point of dissension, the new temporary monument displayed on the Fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square to John Chilembwe, an African protestor to British colonial rule.  And as part of that ongoing debate, we could consider the merits and otherwise of monuments and memorials in Sevenoaks, or their absence.