OCTOBER HOLIDAY EVENTS

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

The Black Watch were in North America at the time of the earliest settlers and met different Native American tribes. Celebrate Native American culture by making your own dreamcatcher to hang beside your bed.

All children to be accompanied by an adult.

Book 2 sessions and get the 3^rd free!

To book call 01738 638152

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

Did you know that The Black Watch where one of the many British Regiments at the Battle of Waterloo in France? Join us to foam print a famous French landmark – the Eiffel Tower – and create a collage background to make a striking picture for your wall.

All children to be accompanied by an adult.

Book 2 sessions and get the 3^rd free!

To book call 01738 638152.

In 1982 Adrian Freer was a 29-year-old Parachute Regiment Officer seconded to the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre. However, following the government’s decision to send a naval task force to the South Atlantic he joined 3 Para as Second in Command of A Company and prepared for deployment to the Falkland Islands. Adrian’s talk will embrace many aspects of that deployment from the sea voyage south on board the SS Canberra alongside 40 & 42 Commandos’, the landings and subsequent ’tab’ across East Falkland, 3 Para’s assault onto Mount Longdon through to the campaign’s immediate aftermath.

Maj Gen Adrian Freer was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1972. His regimental service included tours in all three parachute battalions. He saw operational service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and also in Kosovo, when he led the UK Spearhead forces into the province in June 1999. He commanded the International Military Advisory Training Team in Sierra Leone and was military advisor to the President of Sierra Leone. He completed his service, seconded to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, with responsibility for the Kosovo Protection Corps.

6:30pm drinks reception (drink included in ticket price), 7:00pm lecture commences

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

After defeating Napoleon in Egypt, The Black Watch were given the honour of wearing the sphinx on their badge. Celebrate this ancient Egyptian mythical creature by making and decorating your own sphinx headdress.

All children to be accompanied by an adult.

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

When India was a part of the British Empire, The Black Watch spent long periods of time in the country and learned about their culture. One of the many festivals they would have experienced is Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, where every year thousands of children make Diwali lamps out of clay. Learn about this tradition and make your own Diwali lamp from clay.

All children to be accompanied by an adult.

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

During the 19th Century, The Black Watch had many adventures in South Africa including seeing all the amazing animals that lived there. Join us to create a paper plate safari with vibrant giraffes, stripy zebras, fearsome lions and much more!

All children to be accompanied by an adult

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

Hugh Bicheno will continue our Falklands War lecture series with a keynote talk highlighting the intelligence story behind the background and the conduct of a war that would probably not have happened if Whitehall had not been so intent on forcing the islanders into the arms of an aggressively nationalist military Junta waging a murderous counter-terrorism campaign within Argentina. Whitehall’s policy of neglect of the islands, appeasement of Argentina and suppression of intelligence in order to mislead ministers emboldened the Junta and led to an invasion for which Britain was culpably ill-prepared, and during which no few British officials were more concerned with damaging the Thatcher government than with winning the war.

Hugh Bicheno is bi-lingual in English and Spanish having been born in Cuba to British parents. He attended schools in Cuba, Chile and Scotland before winning a scholarship to Cambridge University (Emmanuel College) where he was awarded a first-class degree in History.

He continued his studies as a postgraduate before joining the Secret Intelligence Service. Attached to the British Embassy in Buenos Aires he was well placed to observe and report on the political situation in Argentina leading up to the Falklands War. After leaving SIS he took up a second career as a security consultant specializing in kidnap negotiations. He lived in the United States for several years becoming a naturalised US citizen before returning to live in England.
He has written many historical books but is best known for his best-selling title “Razor’s Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falklands War” which was praised by Major General Julian Thompson who commanded 3 Commando Brigade during the campaign as the best account of the war.

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

In 1997 The Black Watch was the last British regiment to leave Hong Kong, taking part in a large farewell parade. The traditional Chinese New Year dragon dance is thought to bring good luck over the course of the year. Make and decorate your own dancing dragon puppet and wait for good luck to come your way!

All children to be accompanied by an adult

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

Did you know that The Black Watch has a sister regiment in Canada called The Royal Highlanders of Canada? Join us to make your own cute Canadian moose mascot from loo roll cardboard tubes.

All children to be accompanied by an adult

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

Join us for a superb summer of family crafts and discover some of the incredible places The Black Watch have visited over the last 300 years.

After the Second World War, The Black Watch served over in Korea. Korea has a rich cultural history and one of its many traditions is the folding fan dance. You can make a Korean paper fan to use in your own fan dance or as a decoration.

All children to be accompanied by an adult

Book 2 sessions and get the 3rd free!

First World War – Biography
This is the story not of a great general, nor of a much-feted national hero nor indeed of the scion of some grand family; instead, it tells of the all too brief life of just one of the host of young officers who marched so bravely to the sound of the guns in August 1914, so many of them never to return.

In conversation with Victoria Schofield, author of the two-volume history of The Black Watch, The Highland Furies, and The Black Watch: Fighting on the Front Line, Lt Gen Sir Alistair Irwin will discuss how he researched and wrote about the life of his great uncle Lt Lewis Cumming, describing how he and the men of The Black Watch fought and died during the opening stages of the First World War.  From his early life on Speyside to the front line this is a story that will resonate with many families across the land.

Second World War – Biography
The award-winning Fighting the People’s War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the ‘citizen armies’ of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa, the core components of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War. Dr Jonathan Fennell has drawn on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file; he challenges our understanding of the war and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change more generally. 

In conversation with Professor Sir Hew Strachan, Jonathan will discuss the way in which fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies. They will interrogate soldiers’ political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, and reflect on how those who fought shaped socio-political change and forged the post-war era.

First World War
Much has been written about Field Marshal Earl Haig over the last century, not least by Prof Gary Sheffield in his earlier book Douglas Haig: From The Somme to Victory. However, while researching Haig’s nephew Hugo De Pree, Gary Sheffield was given access to a ‘treasure trove’ of previously unseen letters and papers belonging to the Haig and De Pree families.

In conversation with Prof Sir Hew Strachan, one of the world’s foremost experts on the First World War, Gary will talk about the families ‘insider information’ on Haig, his personal papers, and his historical legacy. They will also discuss the unknown story of Haig’s nephew Hugo De Pree, which gives a fascinating insight into the life of a First World War staff officer and brigade commander.

Second World War – Nazi Espionage comes to Dundee
A Taste For Treason is the dramatic, untold story of how a Nazi spy’s letter, posted in New York and intercepted in Scotland in 1938, broke spy rings across Europe and North America. Following parallel Nazi espionage plots in the UK and USA and an extraordinary cast of characters as they converged on a Scottish post office, this is a thrilling true story of the international spy hunt that followed.

Dr. Andrew Jeffrey will discuss with Dr. Nicola Small the remarkable housewife spy catcher who set MI5 on the trail of Nazi Germany’s most notorious spy in pre-war Britain and how that single letter marked the genesis of an intelligence sharing and security alliance that today includes the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the so-called Five Eyes.

Second World War – Prisoner of War
On 2 September 1944, a German Wehrmacht Liaison Officer was captured by the Russians in Bucharest. His name was Lt-Col Heinz-Helmut von Hinckeldey and he was to remain a “war convict” of the Soviets until 1955. For 11 years, Heinz-Helmut von Hinckeldey had to endure the deprivation – both physical and psychological – of imprisonment; the filth and squalor of the cells in which he was kept; the agony of isolation and repeated self-examination; and the pain of ignorance, of not knowing if his motherland (Germany) still existed or whether those he loved even realised that he was alive.

Charles Wood will discuss with Lt Gen Sir Alistair Irwin how he learned of this story with fascination and then admiration while working as Military Assistant to Maj Gen von Hinckeldey, who was by then the Chief of Staff at HQ Northern Army Group at Moenchengladbach, Northern Germany. They will talk about von Hinckeldey’s life, particularly the 11 years spent in captivity and how he coped with and was shaped by the experience.

Afghanistan and Iraq Wars – What went wrong
The Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, inextricably linked to the ongoing ‘War on Terror’, have overshadowed the beginning of the 21^st century.  How did these wars play out, what were their underlying politics and what happened on the ground?

Brig Ben Barry’s book Blood, Metal and Dust, is the first military history to offer a comprehensive overview of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortlisted for The Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2021, this book provides in-depth accounts of the operations undertaken by both US and UK forces and explores the wars that shaped the modern Middle East. Journalist and one-time soldier, Stephen Stewart will discuss these controversial conflicts with Brig Ben Barry, the high-ranking officer who wrote the British military analysis of the war in Iraq.

Award-winning journalist Stephen Paul Stewart was given a taste of the war in Afghanistan when he was the embedded journalist with The Black Watch, 3^rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, in 2009. His reporting mission to the front line changed his life forever. He gave up his career reporting and joined the British Army before deploying to Afghanistan as a combat infantryman. His book The Accidental Soldier tells of his experiences.

Second World War – The Burma campaign
In 1941 and 1942, the British and Indian armies were brutally defeated in the Far East by the Japanese, who then occupied its newly conquered territories throughout Asia. But change was coming. New commanders were appointed, significant restructuring and training took place and new tactics were developed.

Dr. Robert Lyman will discuss with Lt Col Andy Middlemiss these coordinated efforts and how a new volunteer Indian Army, rising from the ashes of defeat, contributed to turning the tide of war.  They will examine why victory did not come until March 1944, when the Japanese staged their famed ‘March on Delhi’, and how the years of rebuilding the Indian Army reaped rewards after bitter fighting. Robert will also explain how vital this hard-fought campaign was in securing Allied victory in the East, ultimately redrawing the map of the region with an independent India all but guaranteed.

First World War – Rediscovered Histories
What does it mean for a Regiment to be rooted in its community? The Black Watch and The Great War demonstrate exactly that connection. There is no shortage of books dedicated to telling the story of The Black Watch, but this book shines a light on parts of the Regiment’s history that others rarely have space to include.

Derek Patrick and Fraser Brown will discuss with Victoria Schofield the extraordinarily moving collection of stories of Black Watch men, their families, their communities, and comrades contained in this book.  From fighting soldiers to padres and poets, many previously untold stories are pieced together from family papers and archive material to build a very human picture behind The Black Watch, a regiment that lost over 8,000 men during the ‘War to end all Wars’.