Why the ship's destruction shook the world and why it would never have happened, but for the perennial folly of people seeing only what they want to see. All of which devolves upon the fact that Hood was constructed as a battle-cruiser; she was not, in other words, a battleship: a distinction which has never been given its due significance. We look at the entire life of the ship, at those who served in her, at the countless millions who revered her, how she came into existence in the first place and the appalling fate with which she met.
This is the last in a series of 27 talks on the theme of people and events in English - subsequently British - history, ranging from the 7thC to the 20thC. In chronological order, these are:
BEFORE the English: setting the scene and how geography is all.
THE EARLY English Church, the Worldly Saint and Bede - the first Englishman.
THE MAKING of Anglo-Saxon Society, Offa of Mercia and Alfred the Great - saviour of the English and their language.
1016 AND ALL THAT: the forgotten conquest.
1066: NATIONAL Catastrophe or Saving Grace?
ENGLAND Pre- and Post-Conquest - and why we don't speak French (much).
THE NATURE of Early Mediaeval English Kingship: tales of ephemeral triumph, exhaustion, failure, murder and death.
THE ENGLISH and the Rest: abroad is closer than you think.
KING Stephen and the Anarchy: how an upset stomach changed everything.
THOMAS Becket: an enduring lesson in how not to be and what not to do.
BAD KING John and Magna Carta - did she die in vain?
GOVERNANCE and the Peasants' Revolt: the abiding conservatism of the English in the pre-industrial age (much more interesting than it sounds!)
HENRY V: Agincourt and the art of leadership - when you're up against it.
THE ROAD to Towton: how the bloodiest of battles came to be fought - and forgotten.
KING RICHARD III: a life of trauma, triumph, duty, despair, and enduring controversy.
THE ENGLISH Reformation: the first Brexit and its astounding legacy.
ELIZABETH I: cometh the hour, cometh the woman.
THE EARLY Stuarts: James I, Charles I and how to squander a kingdom.
THE ROYAL Navy: how different a world without it.
ENGLAND and the Founding of the Modern World: the drawbacks of being first.
WELLINGTON and Waterloo: the making of a military genius and the apotheosis of generalship.
THE TRAVAILS of George IV and Queen Caroline: how a ludicrous event made 1820 a watershed.
BRITAIN and the Great War (part one): the prelude - accidental empire, the sense of a mission, and the bane of imperialism.
BRITAIN and the Great War (part two): a wholly avoidable national catastrophe.
BRITAIN and the Great War (part three): the never-ending legacy.
"WALLIS (Simpson) of All People": How not to let a good crisis go to waste.
(HMS Hood)
Views: 30 | Enquiries: 0A former teacher of history in independent schools, I retired from my last employment of 28 years at Leeds Grammar School in 2009. Since then, I have given talks to Rotary and Probus Clubs, to historical societies, to the WI, the Yorkshire Countrywomen's Association, on two occasions to Cambridge University summer schools (American students) and - as a passenger to fellow passengers - on Cunard liners.
My talks (27 in number) come under the generic title, 'The Reasons Why: lectures in aspects of English history - the psychology of a people'. Apart from a "scene-setter" ('Geography is all') the subject matter ranges from the seventh to the twentieth century and devolves upon one or other of two themes: either the study of a particular individual and his/her times or on more general themes in which relevant individuals - not all of them known today - make their appearances. Full details of these can be seen on my listed talk (HMS Hood) page and can, additionally, be sent as an email attachment on request.
To conclude with a smidgeon of shameless self-promotion, I would just add that, to date, all the talks I have given appear to have been well received: at any rate, they keep asking me back! Any further information gladly given upon request - though it might be best just to mention that I normally charge £50 all-in (including transport). And if that gives cause for the Treasurer to sit down I am always happy to negotiate: I do these talks very much for their own sake, not to make my fortune.
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