Speaker - Allen Packwood, Churchill College, Cambridge

Allen Packwood will use his knowledge of the Churchill Papers, held at Churchill College, Cambridge, to analyze the contents of Churchill's despatch boxes. He will go behind the iconic image and the famous oratory to look in detail at Churchill's leadership and shed light on how the Prime Minister conducted wartime operations. One of his first agonizing challenges was how to respond to the collapse of France in May 1940.

The Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, Packwood is a Fellow of Churchill College. The center houses the papers of Margaret Thatcher and many other leading British figures as well as those of Winston Churchill. Packwood recently published How Churchill Waged War: The Most Challenging Decisions of the Second World War, an extensive study of Churchill's wartime command. He holds the rank of OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society."