Welcome 

Founded in 2021 by historian and broadcaster Saul David – described by Simon Heffer in the Daily Telegraph as ‘peerless now among our military historians’ – the MHC is an exclusive club for lovers of military history with various tiers of membership to suit different levels of involvement.

 

The benefits include:

  • Guest lectures and dinners with celebrated military historians and practitioners at a top London venue
  • Invite to the founder’s book launches
  • The opportunity to write articles for the MHC’s publication Militaria
  • Monthly newsletter with book recommendations
  • Ten classic military history titles in eBook format
  • Monthly podcast interview with a leading military historian
  • Monthly video discussion of ‘Great Battles in 10 Minutes’
  • Subscription to Aspects of History magazine
  • An invite to the MHC’s annual history tour

Membership Levels

Gold Member

  • Invite to eight Guest Lectures and 3-Course Dinners (including wine) with eminent military historians and practitioners at the Caledonian Club in Belgravia, central London
  • Invite to founder Saul David’s book launches (during a year of publication)
  • Opportunity to write a 2,500-word article on a military history subject of your choice for the MHC’s annual ebook publication Militaria
  • Monthly newsletter with book recommendations
  • Bundle of ten classic military history titles in eBook format
  • First listen of the MHC Podcast’s monthly interview with a leading military historian
  • Exclusive monthly video of founder Saul David discussing ‘Great Battles in 10 Minutes’
  • Annual subscription to Aspects of History magazine
  • Invite to the MHC annual history tour for a member and guest (a separate payment is required to book a place on a first come, first served basis)

£2,000 per annum

(25% discount for five years+ gold membership)

Silver Member

  • Invite to four Guest Lectures and Dinners (including wine) with eminent military historians and practitioners at the Caledonian Club in Belgravia, central London
  • Opportunity to write a 2,500-word article on a military history subject of your choice for the MHC’s annual ebook publication Militaria
  • Monthly newsletter with book recommendations
  • Bundle of ten classic military history titles in eBook format
  • First listen to the MHC Podcast’s monthly interview with a leading military historian
  • Exclusive monthly video of founder Saul David discussing ‘Great Battles in 10 Minutes’
  • Annual subscription to Aspects of History magazine
  • Invite to the MHC annual history tour for a member and guest (a separate payment is required to book a place on a first come, first served basis)

£1,000 per annum

(25% discount for five years+ silver membership)

Bronze Member

  • Monthly newsletter with book recommendations
  • Bundle of ten classic military history titles in eBook format
  • First listen to the MHC Podcast’s monthly interview with a leading military historian
  • Exclusive monthly video of founder Saul David discussing ‘Great Battles in 10 Minutes’
  • Annual subscription to Aspects of History magazine
  • Invite to the MHC annual history tour if places have not been filled by Gold and Silver members (a separate payment is required to book a place)

£100 per annum

All prospective members need to fill out an application form. Applicants for Gold and Silver Membership – which conform to the calendar year – are invited to attend an informal interview with the club’s founder, Saul David.

How to join

Complete the application form and click the submit button. You will be contacted in due course.

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Lecture programme

Exclusive to members

Location: The Caledonian Club, 9 Halkin Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 7DR. Tel. 020 7333 8726.

The lectures take place in the Stuart Room, followed by dinner in the Selkirk Room. Dress code: lounge suit or tailored jacket and tie, and the equivalent dress for women.  The use of mobile phones in the Club is forbidden except in certain designated areas.

A limited number of bedrooms are available at the Caledonian Club – on a first come, first served basis – for those MHC members who would like to stay overnight. To book a room, please contact: Reception (recp2@caledonianclub.com).

The Caledonian Club

9 Halkin Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X

Forthcoming lectures

Wednesday May 10, 2023
Gary Sheffield, ‘The Spanish Armada: Myth and Reality’
Followed by dinner.

Wednesday June 7, 2023
Spencer Jones, ‘The Battle of Gettysburg’
Followed by dinner.

Wednesday September 13, 2023
Justin Pollard, ‘Alfred the Great’
Followed by dinner.

Wednesday October 18, 2023
Jessie Childs, ‘The Siege of Loyalty House, 1643-45’
Followed by dinner.

Wednesday November 15, 2023
Saul David, ‘Devil Dogs: K Company, 3/5 Marines, from Guadalcanal to the Shores of Japan’
Followed by dinner.

Wednesday January 10, 2024
Paul Cartledge, ‘Alexander the Great’
Followed by dinner

Podcast

Members hear first

Members have first access to the MHC Podcast, a monthly interview with a leading military historian. The first episode, released to members on 1 January 2022, features founder Saul David in discussion with Professor Richard Overy, one of the world’s leading authorities on the history of Nazi Germany and the Second World War. His many critically-acclaimed and prize-winning books include Russia’s War, The Dictators, The Bombing War and, most recently, Blood and Ruins. Other historians who will appear on the MHC Podcast in 2022 include Patrick Bishop, James Holland, Sir Hew Strachan and Richard B. Frank.

Great Battles in Ten Minutes

Members see first

Members have exclusive access to a monthly video of club founder Saul David discussing a ‘Great Battle in Ten Minutes’. The battles covered in 2022 will include Isandlwana, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Teutoberger Wald, Bannockburn, Blenheim, Quebec, Waterloo, Custer’s Last Stand, the First Day on the Somme and Stalingrad.

Saul will analyse each battle by answering five key questions: When? Where? Why? What happened? What was the outcome?

Militaria – published annually

FREE FOR MEMBERS

Gold and Silver Members who would like to try their hand at writing history are invited to contribute a 2,500-word article on a subject of their choice to the MHC’s annual ebook publication Militaria. Copies of the ebook are available to all members free of charge.

 

History Tours

EXCLUSIVE TO MEMBERS

Members have exclusive access to the MHC’s annual history tour. 

The Military History Club Battlefield Tour to Normandy – 13-17 July 2022 

Introduction:

The tour will visit the battle sites of the battle of Normandy. On 6 June 1944, the largest armada the world had ever seen appeared on the shores of northern France to open the “second front” and defeat the Wehrmacht. The fighting was hard and bloody for both sides, and it was not until August that the German defensive line could be broken.  Allied material superiority was facing a numerically weaker German force which, however, often showed a fanatical will to fight – and die. In contrast to most tours, which concentrate very much on the Allied experience of the campaign, we will be looking at “both sides of the hill” and analyse both the Allied and German armies, their strategies and operational plans, and we will see how these played out on the (tactical) ground for the GI, the Tommy, and the Landser in Normandy in the summer of 1944.

 

The tour will be led by Prof Matthias Strohn, Visiting Professor of Military Studies at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Buckingham, and, as Senior Associate Fellow, Head of Historical Analysis at the British Army’s think tank, CHACR. Matthias holds a commission in the German Army and has, among other deployments, served on the defence attaché staffs at the German embassies in Paris, London and Madrid. He has led over 100 battlefield tours and staff rides. In a previous deployment at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he was responsible for Normandy Scholar, a joint academic-military exercise, which takes about 750 Army cadets to Normandy.

 

Day One:

Meet at Ashford International station, travel on Coach via Eurotunnel to Bayeux. Walking tour of Bayeux and introduction to the Normandy campaign  

 

Day Two:

The British Sector:

We explore the airborne attacks on Merville Battery and Pegasus Bridge. We then move on to Gold Beach to analyse the British landings and German counter-measures, and hear about the only VC won on D-Day. We finish the day at the new British D-Day memorial

 

Day Three:

The British Sector:

We visit the German radar station at Douvres, which held out against British attacks until 17 June. We explore the German battery at Longues sur Mer and the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches before moving inland and analysing the battles at Hill 122, the ‘Verdun of Normandy’. Visit the Bayeux Tapestry Museum

 

Day Four:

The American Sector:

Travel to Omaha beach where we learn about the difficult landings and “the beast of Omaha”. Visit the US cemetery before moving on to Pointe du Hoc to learn about the US Ranger attack on the formidable German defensive position. We visit the German military cemetery at La Cambe and finish the day at the Bayeux Battle of Normandy Museum

 

Day Five:

Return to England

 

Throughout the tour we will be staying in the Hotel Churchill in Bayeux (http://www.hotel-churchill.fr/en/). We considered booking a chateau hotel in the countryside. But the Churchill has the advantage of being situated in the centre of Bayeux, which makes it easy to explore the city on foot. All meals (including non-alcoholic drinks and one alcoholic drink per meal) and entrance fees are included in the tour price of £1,550 for single occupant, and £1,400pp for two sharing a room.

 

Praise for Saul David and Matthias Ströhn’s previous tours

Madrid and The Battlefields of the Spanish Civil War, 20-24 October 2021:

Jeremy Archer: ‘Rack my brain as I might, I cannot think of a single thing that I would have done differently. Our trip was a truly excellent balance between warfare, culture and rest and recuperation. Matthias, I really don’t know how you manage to remain completely unflustered, “keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs …” Thank you particularly for making, re-making and then re-re-making the arrangements under such challenging circumstances. I am already looking forward to Northern Italy next year.’

Jim Ferguson: ‘Thank you again for another excellent tour. Battlefield tours just would not be the same without your knowledge, perspective and unerring instinct for an excellent restaurant! Already looking forward to 2022.’

Jonathan Skan: ‘Seeing the places where actual events took place really brought everything to life and I shall always remember standing on the Republican start-line overlooking Brunetta and viewing the countryside where all-arms warfare was put into practice for the first time.  I can only imagine how many hours you had to spend organising our four days in Madrid, but I enjoyed it hugely and look forward to next year’s adventure.’

Meet Saul David

Saul David is a Sunday Times bestselling military historian, novelist and broadcaster. His history books include The Indian Mutiny (shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature), Zulu (a Waterstone’s Military History Book of the Year), and Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport (an Amazon History Book of the Year). Alan Furst commented in the New York Times Book Review: ‘Tense and riveting…This is the achievement of a masterly, first-rate historian.’ The film rights for Operation Thunderbolt were bought by Hollywood’s Participant Media and used in the making of the motion picture ‘Seven Days in Entebbe’ which was released worldwide in the spring of 2018. The film is co-produced by Working Title, directed by José Padilha, and stars Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Eddie Marsan.

In 2019, he brought out The Force: The legendary Special Ops Unit and WWII’s Mission Impossible, which was hailed as a ‘monumental achievement’ (Douglas Brinkley) and ‘an essential part of anyone’s library’ (Doug Stanton). His follow up book, Crucible of Hell: Okinawa – The Last Great Battle of the Second World War, was published in the spring of 2020 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the campaign, and was shortlisted for the 2021 British Army’s Military Book of the Year. It was described by Antony Beevor as ‘Excellent…gripping narrative’ and named as an Amazon.com History Book of the Month and Daily Telegraph and Times/Sunday Times Non-fiction Book of the Year. In a 5-star review in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Heffer described Saul as ‘peerless now among our military historians’. 

Saul’s latest book, SBS: Silent Warriors – The Authorized Wartime History, was published on 2 September 2021 to universal praise. ‘A terrific book,’ wrote James Holland in the Daily Telegraph, ‘written with all the gusto, thrills and head excitement these SBS operations richly deserve. It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year.’  It was an instant Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, entering the list at No. 9 and climbing to No. 4. lt includes previously unseen documents from the SBS Association Archives, the first-time that Britain’s top-secret maritime special operations unit has opened its doors to a historian.

Saul has also written three historical novels, Zulu Hart, Hart of Empire and The Prince and the Whitechapel Murders.

Saul has presented and appeared in history programmes for all the major TV and streaming channels. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Professorial Research Fellow at the Humanities Research Institute, University of Buckingham. He was Professor of Military History at the University of Buckingham from 2009-2021.

“Saul David is peerless now among our military historians”

Simon Heffer, The Daily Telegraph

Contact

If you have a query about any aspect of the Military History Club, or would like help with the application form, please fill in your contact details and leave a message. Don’t forget to click the red ‘Submit’ button. Saul or one of his assistants will respond as soon as they can.