​During 2024 I gave a number of lunch and

dinner talks and several more formal presentations.

I've more scheduled for 2025, including

two conferences (Essex British Legion and

'Not the Western Front', the second year of a new initiative in Wakefield),

many Western Front Association groups, U3A, Rotary and Probus Clubs and others.

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I adapt each talk for the audience, some are more historically detailed others lighter, less military and more discovering family history. Below are a selection that I build the talks around,​​.

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Please email me for more detail.  andy.stuart@andystuart.net 

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1.    Churchill's Intervention in the Russian Civil War

Today most people believe November 11th, 1918 was the end of the fighting in The Great War. Few know that for thousands of British and other Allied soldiers and volunteers, a very different and terrible war continued in a dangerous environment many miles from home.

 

Why were they in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution? How did this affect the Western Front? Who were the Czech Legion and Churchill's North Russian Relief Force? 

What motivated the volunteers and who emptied the Russian prisons?

 

This talk explores a forgotten period of British history and Churchill's involvement in it.

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2.    Tall Tales or Real History

We all have family stories that permeate generations and the truth or otherwise gets lost in time. But what if they're true?

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'I dropped a jar of mercury at the chemist shop.' - Really Grandad?

'We found a wine cellar. Some bottles had gold nuggets floating in them.' - After you'd drunk a few?

'Shamrock cap-badged Russians.' A bit far from home were they? 

'We stole a train to escape the Bolsheviks'. - Was it the 11.15 from Omsk?

 

In this talk I look into some of my grandad's 'Tall Tales', how they look when compared to real history .......... With some surprising results.

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3.    What did you do in The Great War, Grandad?

A question many over the age of 60 might wish they'd asked. A generation now of an age where their grandparents, who they knew, would have made a contribution to the national effort in The Great War.

 

I was 11 when Arthur Walton, my grandad died. But he left stories with his son-in-law, my dad, and me about some of his experiences as a soldier in WW1 and the Russian Civil War. This direct link of verbal, family history is diminishing as time goes by. 

 

This talk looks at using limited family information to find out a great deal about their units, where they were and the battles they were in. A journey I've been on myself.

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4.    Unusual Tales from The Great War: Some stories you won't have heard.

Inspired by stories from Arthur who enlisted in August 1914 at the age of 16, I started writing during lockdowns. The outcome is a collection of 'Tales from The Great War' in three books. 'A Journey from Boy to Soldier. 1914-1916', 'Is this Forever? 1916-1919', and 'Churchill's Intervention. 1919-1920.'

 

The books take a collection of men from different classes, education, trades and professions through the years of the first industrial war. This talk refers to the books by joining fact with fiction and of how the men filled their time to survive.

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It wasn't all mud, blood and barbed wire. They gambled, drank, had sweetheart letters. Scammed the system ... and the Americans. Wrote 'satirical rhymes for the Wipers Times', guarded PoW's and manned a firing squad. They retained their humour and humanity, and for some, their prejudices.

 

Some were taken prisoner by mutinous Bolsheviks, travelled across Russia on a refugee 'plague' train, were lectured by Lenin's wife and met a multi-lingual English Governess with a family carrying a treasure. On return to Britain they were jailed until released by a phone call from Churchill.

 

The aim of this talk is to look at 'big event' history through the eyes of the men living it.