Cumbria Museum of Military Life in Carlisle Castle Tuesday Talks series continues with historian Niall Cherry when he visits the Museum on Tuesday 13 March.

Niall will be discussing the Battle of Cambria which was fought in November/December 1917. This proved to be a significant event in World War One as Cambrai was the first battle in which tanks were used en-masse. Cambrai saw a mixture of tanks being used, heavy artillery and air power. British lost 44,000 men and the German’s lost 45,000.

Niall Cherry was born in London in 1959 and recalls becoming interested in military history as a schoolboy from watching such classic war films as ‘The Battle of Britain’ and ‘A Bridge Too Far’. He later found out that one of his grandfather’s fought in the Great War, serving as a chemical corporal at Loos in 1915 and ended up as a Captain. His father served in the REME in the 1950s and Niall continued in the family tradition by serving in the RAMC. During his time he qualified as a Combat Medical Technician Class 1 and an instructor in First Aid and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare, ending up as a Senior NCO.

Deeply interested in the major conflicts of the 20th Century, he has visited numerous battlefields including the Western Front, Arnhem, Gallipoli, Normandy and North Africa. He is a long standing member of the Western Front Association, the Military Heraldry Society and 23 Parachute Field Ambulance Old Comrades Association. He also has the honour to be the UK representative for the Society of Friends of the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek, Secretary of the Arnhem 1944 Veterans’ Club and secretary and a trustee of the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship. He has now written eleven books on aspects of the Frist and Second World Wars. He has led various groups around battlefields, contributed articles to After the Battle and Battlefields Review and has helped with around 30 books on the airborne forces and the Great War. Niall currently lives in Lancashire and works for BAE Systems in the aerospace industry.

The April Tuesday Talk at the Museum will take place on Tuesday 10 April. Stuart Eastwood will be talking about the life of Colonel James Forbes Robertson, VC who served in the Border Regiment and led the First Battalion, The Border Regiment during the German Spring Offensive of 1918. Forbes Robertson from Brighouse, Yorkshire received the Victoria Cross for outstanding leadership and gallantry. The VC alongside the Distinguished Service Order the Military Cross and other medals that he received are on display in the Museum.

http://www.cumbriasmuseumofmilitarylife.org/tuesday-talks-through-the-eye-of-the-lens/