Celebrating the Battle of Minden

April's speaker was NSC member Ewan Carmichael, at what was actually his first attendance at a physical meeting in two years of membership (and he only lives in Orpington). However, we forgive him his absence as he did give a thorough, erudite and entertaining talk on the Battle of Minden, a significant engagement in the Seven Years War, upon which Ewan has written a book.

The battle was fought between an allied army of British, Prussian and Hanoverian troops and their French and Saxon foes. The French had previous invaded Hanover in 1757, before being driven across the Rhine in 1758. Swelled by reinforcements, however, the French once again attacked and captured the fortress of Minden. The decisive action occurred on 1st August 1759, when the French commander abandoned his defensive position to meet the Allies in battle. But repeated French cavalry charges failed to break the lines of plucky British and Hanoverian infantry, who then advanced after the shattered French forces.

Although largely forgotten by the general public, the Battle of Minden is considered one of the great British military victories, and the descendants of the regiments that fought that day still celebrate on 1st August, "Minden Day", sporting roses in their caps—allegedly soldiers advancing to the battle plucked roses from gardens and wore them in their tunics, although Ewan doubts this. He considers it more likely that after the battle soldiers may have picked wild roses from the terrain (possibly in humorous imitation of the habit of some German troops of sporting oak leaves to indicate they were on duty). Many thanks to Ewan for his talk. You can see a video of the full lecture on our YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/kgnDJJTG9BA and you can see a few still photos from the evening in an album on our Flickr page.