Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One

Speaker: Nick Higham, writer and former journalist

When Russia crashed out of the First World War following the Revolution in 1917, Britain was desperate to prevent its German and Turkish enemies seizing the oil-rich port of Baku on the Caspian Sea.  But the country had few soldiers to spare and Baku was hundreds of miles from the nearest British army.  So a ramshackle plan was hastily thrown together by officials with little local knowledge to block the Turks, and a small group of enterprising, fearless and often reckless men were tasked with implementing it.  One was a charismatic and unorthodox career soldier, who had been the model for one of Rudyard Kipling’s most popular characters.  One was a Scottish aristocrat and diplomat who smuggled millions of roubles for the war effort.  One was a brilliant inventor and the younger brother of one of the British army’s most senior generals.  One was a seemingly indestructible soldier who was held hostage for five months in horrific conditions.  The fifth was a spy who printed his own currency and would eventually emerge as an author at the age of ninety-nine. This talk, based on Nick’s latest book, will tell the five men’s story and that of the little-known Battle of Baku and its legacy.

Nick Higham is a writer and former journalist who spent nearly thirty years as a BBC correspondent.  His history of London’s water, The Mercenary River, was published in 2022.  Mavericks is his second book.

Members: Free, Online or Victoria Hall
Non-Members: £10, Online or Victoria Hall. To attend in person, please pay on the door
Please book, for online link only, by 1pm on the day of the event

Please join us for a drink in the Members’ Room after the lecture