King’s Talks 2024

The next of our 2024 year-round talks takes place in July!

Friday 19 July 
6-7pm £7
Aden: War & Peace at the End of Empire
Denis Sparrow
Ivor Gurney Hall, King’s School Gloucester

Aden, the former British Protectorate at the tip of Yemen, overlooks the Arabian Sea and was a vital territory on the trade route to India and Asia. The Royal Marines were the first regiment into Aden in 1839 and the last out in the 1967 Aden Emergency. Over 200 British troops were killed in what’s now become a forgotten war.

Former Royal Marine Commando and historian Denis Sparrow was posted to Aden in 1961 when it was the world’s second biggest port, a key Cold War strategic asset after the Suez Crisis and faced Yemeni-armed rebel tribes in revolt. He tells the turbulent story of Yemen and Aden, exploring fascinating parallels with today’s Middle East, and gives a compelling eye-witness account, both gripping and humorous, of life under fire in a British outpost at the end of Empire.

After his talk he’s joined by three Aden veterans from Gloucestershire to share tales of courage and camaraderie in a long-gone colony brought to the screen in the hit BBC drama The Last Post.