BIHT Zoom Lecture: Tuesday 10 December 2024, 18:30-20:00 GMT
Valerie Haye, of the British in India Historical Trust, has supplied the following details of a zoom lecture being given on Tuesday 10 December by Peter Stanley.
John Company’s Armies: The Military Forces of British India
Peter Stanley
Tuesday 10 December 2024, 18:30-20:00 GMT (ZOOM)
‘Composed of men of diverse ethnicities and faiths under the flag of the East India Company, the armies of British India conquered or controlled much of the Indian sub-continent by 1850. Four armies fought for ‘John Company’: the three presidency armies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, and the regiments of the British Army rented from the Crown by the Company. Together this collection of European and Native corps — regular and irregular — numbered over 300,000 uniformed men at its height.
Peter Stanley traces how they were commanded, how they lived and died, and how they prepared for and fought major wars and faced dozens of insurrections and rebellions. He also examines the distinctive military culture they created, which was decisively changed by the 1857 Mutiny.
Peter Stanley, a BACSA member, is Research Professor in the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society, University of New South Wales, and was Principal Historian at the Australian War Memorial from 1987-2007. His works on the Indian Army include John Company’s Armies: The Military Forces of British India 1824-1857 (2024); White Mutiny: British Military Culture in India (1998); and Hul! Hul! The Suppression of the Santal Rebellion in British India, 1855 (2022).
Lectures are broadcast via Zoom and are available UK-wide and to an international audience. Lectures are recorded and uploaded to YouTube for two weeks. Links are emailed to all ticket-holders.
Tickets for this lecture cost £5. Click here to book tickets (online, by post, or by bank transfer)’.
Valerie Haye
(Suggestions for BACSA website news items are always welcome – please send them to ‘comms@bacsa.org.uk’.)