FOR ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN THE HISTORY
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE BRITISH RAJ
ONLINE LECTURES
Online lectures run from November to April. They 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.
HOW TO BOOK
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Tickets £5 per lecture
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Tickets may be booked online by selecting ‘BOOK NOW’, by post or (if in the UK) by bank transfer.
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If booking by post or by by bank transfer, please follow the instructions given here.
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How to book
LECTURE PROGRAMME 2025–26
TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2026 18.30-20.00 GMT (ZOOM)
Julia Margaret Cameron
Jeff Rosen
Julia Margaret Cameron, the celebrated Victorian photographer, was a child of Empire. The daughter of a governing official of the East India Company, she moved in the first circles of colonial Calcutta. Relocating to England in her thirties, she avidly followed press reports of the Indian Mutiny, taking up photography at a time when national and imperial politics transfixed Britain. Jeff Rosen explores Cameron’s colonial roots and how she embedded in her work imagery that visualised Britain’s imperial power.
Jeff Rosen is a former academic dean at Loyola University Chicago and professor of art history at Columbia College Chicago. He is now a scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library, Chicago. He is the author of Julia Margaret Cameron: The Colonial Shadows of Victorian Photography (2024).
TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2026 18.30-20.00 GMT (ZOOM)
Curzon's Chosen Men: Political Officers on the Periphery of Empire
Alan Dillon
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In the early 20th century, political resident John Gordon Lorimer ICS and political agent Captain William Shakespear of the Indian Foreign Department played prominent roles on behalf of the British and Indian Governments. As ‘warrior scholars’, both used their diplomatic, linguistic, intelligence and exploration skills in the Arabian Peninsula and Persia to enhance Britain’s understanding of the periphery of Empire, bequeathing geopolitical legacies that continue to resonate long after their careers were tragically cut short.
Alan Dillon is a serving diplomat who spent twelve years in the Royal Marines before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2000. He has served in Afghanistan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Oman, interspersed by spells in Whitehall, mostly covering the Gulf and South Asia regions. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of Captain Shakespear: Desert Exploration, Arabian Intrigue and the Rise of Ibn Sa’ud (2019) and Lorimer: His Gazetteer and Britain’s Pursuit of Knowledge (2024).
TUESDAY 14 APRIL 2025 18.30-20.00 BST (ZOOM)
Churchill's Forgotten Generals
Raymond Callahan
Generals Auchinleck, Slim and Savory and their role in the campaigns in Northeast India and Burma have been largely forgotten by historians. Auchinleck, as C-in-C India, made sure the Army was geared towards jungle warfare and improved the lot of Indian officers and men. Slim was the successful Commander of the 14th Army, who led it from defeat into victory. Savory, as Director of Infantry, ensured that all infantry battalions were trained for jungle warfare. The appointments of Auchinleck, Slim and Savory in 1943 were pivotal in the defeat of the Japanese in Burma. For the first time in the war the key figures in Indian military affairs were all drawn from the Indian Army and understood its traditions and ways.
Raymond Callahan is the author of Triumph at Imphal-Kohima: How the Indian Army Finally Stopped the Japanese Juggernaut and five other books on the Indian Army, including with Alan Jeffreys Churchill's Forgotten Generals: Victors in Burma (2025). He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Delaware.