Monday 13 May 2024

South Lawn Hotel, Lymington Road, Milford on Sea  SO41 0RF

Monthly Meeting

Our speaker today is Kevin Patience and his talk is entitled "Send a Gunboat'.

Kevin's life could be the basis of a talk in itself - he grew up in Kenya, served in the RAF, became a commercial diver, established a marine salvage company and latterly has published several books on military history.

Send a Gunboat is the true story of the Royal Navy's skirmishes on the East African coast against the slave trade in the late 1800's when Britannia Ruled the Waves and kept the peace.  It culminated in the forty-five-minute bombardment of the Sultan's Palace in Zanzibar in 1896, that became known as 'The Shortest War in History'.  There is also a curious Dorset connection.