Send me a message

Victorian British army surgeon, William Manley, is the only man to have ever been awarded both the Victoria Cross and the Iron Cross.

But how did that happen?

Let's explore his forgotten story.

William Manly VC (1831 - 1901).


Join my Supporter's Club

Support the show

Send me a message

Actor Christopher Lee appeared in over 200 films during a 67 year career.

But what a lot of people don’t know is that he served as an intelligence in the RAF during World War 2.

More intriguingly, he also claimed that he served with special forces too.

Support the show

Send me a message

Following the death of Charles Gordon in Khartoum in 1885 at the hands of the Mahdists, one of his key Lieutenants, German-born Emin Pasha, was left cut off from the world in the swamps of southern Sudan facing the Mahdist forces alone.

With their hero, Gordon, dead the British public demanded that the same fate should not befall Emin Pasha.

And thus in 1887 the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition was born.

Join my Supporters Club

For the next two years it battled through over 2,000 miles of impenetrable forests in the Congo before finally reaching the beleaguered Emin. Two thirds of the force died of starvation and the leaders were accused of beating porters to death and even colluding with cannibals.

Many say the brutality of some of the leaders, provided the basis for some of the characters in Joseph Conrads classic novel set in the Congo at that time, “Heart of Darkness”.

The expedition was an epic, chaotic and violent  climax to the golden age of European exploration in Africa.

This is the story of that epic relief expedition to the heart of darkness.

Support the show

Send me a message

On the 31st July 1970 a 300 year naval tradition ended.

The daily ritual in the Royal Navy of receiving a tot of Rum.

It is remembered as Black Tot Day.

Join me as I explore this, now lost, tradition.

Join my Supporter's Club

Get my Newsletter

Support the show

Send me a message

The little-known Battle of Inyezane was fought on the 22nd January 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War.
The first major encounter of the conflict, it resulted in a British victory.
However, it was totally overshadowed (and consequently forgotten) in light of the British defeat at Isandlwana that same morning and the subsequent defence of Rorke's Drift.

Join my Supporter's Club

Keep in touch with my newsletter

Support the show

Send me a message

During the Jacobite Revolt of 1745, Hannah Snell, a woman from Worcester, dressed up as a man and joined the British army.
Her amazing adventure saw her fighting in India alongside Robert Clive, and conducting DIY surgery to remove a musket ball from her groin so her cover wasn't blown.

She is credited as the first woman to ever serve in the Royal Marines.

Join My Supporter's Club

Support the show

Send me a message

Robert Clive was The East India Company’s first governor of Bengal, victor at the battle of Plassey (episode 118)and arguably the founder of the British Empire in India.

Yet he is also a highly controversial figure, not just now but in his own day too. Accused of accumulating huge personal wealth whilst presiding over a system that ruined the Bengal economy and cost the lives of millions in a famine.

British cartoonists called him Lord Vulture and he was forced to defend himself in front  a parliamentary committee.

Join my Supporter's Club

Support the show

Send me a message

The assassination of British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval on 11th May 1812.
The only British PM to ever have been assassinated.

Join My Supporter's Club

Keep in Touch 

Support the show

Send me a message

The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron is a small and often forgotten part in the fight to end slavery.

Join My Supporter's Club

For 60 years, Royal Navy vessels, patrolled the west coast of Africa and the Atlantic capturing over 1,500 slave ships and liberating 150,000 slaves.

It was an exercise which cost the lives of 1,600 Royal Navy sailors, one for roughly every 100 slaves liberated.

Keep in touch

Support the show

Send me a message

Join my Supporter's Club

Every year on the 12th July, Northern Ireland’s loyalist, protestant community celebrate the battle of the Boyne.

A battle in 1690 between 2 kings involving nearly 60,000 troops, on the banks of a river in Ireland.

One representing Irish Catholic hopes and the other, representing Protestant aspirations.

But what actually happened at the Battle of the Boyne,?

And why were they fighting at all?

It’s time to explore the battle that still shapes Ireland to this day.

Keep in touch

Support the show