Horatio Nelson – The Making of a Hero
On 25 November 2024, Peter Gutteridge will tell the story of Nelson’s early life from his birth in 1758 in the small Norfolk village of Burnham Thorpe through to the battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February 1797 which established him as one of the nation’s great heroes. The talk will identify the myths from reality and seek to explain his “Dreams of Glory”.
Peter is a retired senior partner of a large law firm and now a regular speaker on naval and maritime history subjects and, in particular, Horatio Nelson. He is a long-standing member of the Nelson Society and has Masters’ degrees in Maritime History from Greenwich University and History from Cambridge University. His interest in Nelson was originally fostered by his grandfather, Professor H.C. Gutteridge, who was a distinguished academic and author of ‘Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins’.
Agincourt: The Legend of England
On Monday 27 January 2025, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, Suffolk born and bred with a deep interest in its past, will come to Butley Priory to talk about the battle of Agincourt.
“Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall thine keep company to heaven: Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast; As, in this glorious and well-foughten field, we kept together in our chivalry!”
Edward, Duke of York, to the Earl of Suffolk, as they lay dying on the field of Agincourt. (The Life of King Henry V, Act IV, Scene 7)
On the evening of 24th October 1415, a bedraggled, disease-ridden, exhausted little army huddled around its campfires for what many in its ranks feared would be their last night on earth. Their way to Calais and safety was blocked by a superbly equipped French army, fresh and vastly superior in numbers. The next afternoon, with improbable victory won, King Henry V of England enquired of the French herald, Montjoie, the name of the fortified manor house they could see on the edge of the battlefield: ‘Azincourt,’ came the reply. Agincourt.
Immortalised by Shakespeare – if it needed immortalising – the extraordinary victory at Agincourt, total and against all odds, marked the high point of English arms in The Hundred Years War. Its name rolls off the tongue alongside Crecy and Poitiers, the great triumphs of Edward III two generations earlier. But Agincourt is different. Agincourt forms part of the very fabric of how English people have viewed themselves and, for some, still do today. It sits alongside Trafalgar and the Battle of Britain in defining us, both in our eyes and through the eyes of others.
Jamie will describe the campaign and the battle and will attempt to view it from something of a soldier’s perspective, however remote, and – thankfully! – different his military experience was from those who fought at Agincourt.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton grew up at Alderton and now lives across the fields from Sutton Hoo. For twenty years he was an officer in the British Army and subsequently Principal Private Secretary to the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. He is an ambassador for the HALO Trust, the world’s largest humanitarian mine-clearance charity, and Waterloo Uncovered, a charity engaged in the excavation of the battlefield of Waterloo by world-class archaeologists working alongside military veterans recovering from wounds and injuries.
Divergence, Hyper Connection and Chaos: a spy’s view of the world.
On a date in March yet to be confirmed due to other commitments, Sir Alex Younger KCMG will give a talk on a spy’s view of the world. Sir Alex Younger was for 30 years a career intelligence officer in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. He served in Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He was appointed as Director of Counter Terrorism from 2009 to 2012, Head of Operations from 2012 to 2014 and then Chief of the Service from 2014 to 2020. Prior to SIS, Alex served in the British Army as an infantry officer. He attended St Andrews’ University where he read computer science amongst other things. Alex led MI6 during a period of unprecedented technological change when both digital threats and opportunities intensified.
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
On Wednesday 2 April 2025, Baillie Gifford prize winning author Lucy Hughes Hallett will talk about her biography of King James I’s favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the King’s gatekeeper, right hand man and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and first minister. Buckingham’s story was part of a great political drama. After a spectacular fall from grace, he came to represent everything that was wrong with the country. The Scapegoat navigates love, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change and in this authoritative account of his life, Hughes Hallett summons an era that still resonates today.
All talks start at 6.00pm and last about an hour. Tickets cost £15.00 for Friends of Orford Museum, £20 for guests and include a complimentary glass of wine.
Please book through our website at www.orfordmuseum.org.uk
The Orford Museum History Festival returns in 2025. Find out more here.