Inaugural Lecture a resounding success

In the inaugural St Bede’s Parents/ Students Speech Society event, over 150 people of all ages, came to St Bede’s Senior School on 10th of September to listen to Antony Beevor’s account of D-Day – The Battle for Normandy.

Antony Beevor is one of the UK’s foremost and respected historians, credited in the national press, as having 'single-handedly’ transformed ‘the reputation of military history.' His account of D-Day, which appeared in May 2009, soon became a number one bestseller in seven countries, including the UK and France and was in the top ten in eight other countries. His book is the first major account of the event for over 20 years and his passion for his subject and attention to interesting detail were nothing short of extraordinary.

For the Allies, June 6 1944 was one of the best days of the Second World War. It was fraught with setbacks, problems, moments of extreme risk and drama, but at its close, the architects of D-Day’s Operation Overlord could breathe a huge sigh of relief. The plan had worked. The vital foothold on the Continent had been gained and with far fewer losses than had been hoped or expected. It seemed that the beginning of the end had finally commenced. The truth of Normandy, though, was that the landing was the easy part. The initial momentum faded swiftly. The liberators found themselves drawn into a ferocious war of attrition with enemy forces who confronted them with a bloodied determination.

Antony Beevor confronted every element of these events with clarity and openness and answered and debated a number of tricky questions from the floor with ease, displaying his extreme breadth of knowledge. The society is the brainchild of Mr Marc Rattray, Head of Philosophy and Ethics. At the end of the speech, he announced there was a collection for Action Aid which supports the education of the poorest children of Afghanistan. St Bede’s aims to raise enough money to support a child through 10 years of his or her education and the evening raised over £460 which represents nearly three years of this.

Our next speaker, who was in attendance at Antony Beevor’s address, will be BBC Presenter, David Dimbleby. He has kindly agreed to speak in late January and we look forward, enormously, to listening to him then. We would also like to thank Antony Beevor again for his wonderful speech and to all those who supported this event and gave so generously.