FOR ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN THE HISTORY
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE BRITISH RAJ
LIVE LECTURES
The British in India's fourth live event for 2025 will be a lunchtime lecture on Tuesday 25 November at the University Women's Club.​​
TUESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2025 11.30am-1.00pm (LIVE)
Britain's Man on the Spot
Ann Wilks CBE
University Women's Club, 2 Audley Square, Mayfair, London W1K 1DB
In his 40-year career with the Indian Civil Service Sir Henry Dobbs served in India, Balochistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a prolific letter-writer, his correspondence and papers filling seven trunks that rested undisturbed for over 80 years in his home in Ireland. Ann Wilks was offered access and her biography draws on Dobbs’s writings to portray the daily work of an Indian Civil Servant and show how the man on the spot could shape events. In Afghanistan Dobbs negotiated a lasting treaty alone in Persian with the Amir. As High Commissioner for Iraq he ensured that it was not abandoned by a cash-strapped Britain, kept its northern third and advanced to early independence. An early advocate of self-determination Dobbs would use his own, often unauthorised, methods to benefit those he governed and to satisfy British objectives.​
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​This lecture is presented in association with the Indian Civil Service Society.
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Tea and coffee (self-serve and included in the ticket price) will be available on arrival. At 11.30 am there will be a short meeting in the Library for members of the Indian Civil Service Society (and anyone interested in joining).
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The lecture will be presented in the Library at 12 noon. For those who would like to stay, an optional two-course meal (main course, dessert and coffee) from 1pm to 2.30pm will follow in the Drawing Room. Drinks can be purchased separately from the pay bar in the Drawing Room after the lecture. Dietary requirements accommodated where notified. Dress code: smart casual. All welcome.
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Tickets for the lecture cost £15. Tickets for the lecture and meal cost £62.50.
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Bookings for the meal close on 20 November.
Bookings for the lecture close on 24 November.
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HOW TO BOOK
Tickets may be booked online by card (fees apply), by bank transfer or by cheque. Bookings are now open.
Ann Wilks CBE was a senior civil servant in the Department of Trade and Industry and then ran a regulatory body in the financial services sector. An Oxford MA and BPhil in modern history, Ann was offered on retirement the use of the recently discovered papers of Sir Henry Dobbs, her husband’s grandfather. She will discuss how she went about turning her material into a book as well as Dobbs's remarkable career.
How to book
Price includes platform and payment processing fees
Price includes platform and payment processing fees
Governor-General Lord Moira and his party enjoy a fireworks display in the grounds of the palace of Farhat Baksh in Lucknow (detail). Watercolour from Views by Seeta Ram from Cawnpore to Mohumdy vol. IV produced for Lord Moira, afterwards the Marquess of Hastings, by Sita Ram between 1814 and 1815. British Library, public domain. Farhat Baksh, originally named the Château de Lyon, was designed and built in 1781 on the banks of the Gomti river by Frenchman Claude Martin as his city residence in Lucknow. After Martin’s death it was acquired by Saadat Ali Khan, Nawab of Avadh, who renamed it Farhat Baksh and transformed it into a palace.