Winners and Losers - who writes the story?
On Monday 6 February the Lyceum History Group (Raphael Gould, Rebecca Owen, Rupert Waley, Christopher Vangerven, Toby Gay and Christian Laczko-Schroeder) welcomed Oxford Historian and former Gilling pupil Richard Ansell for a talk and discussion on two topics, ‘Charles I – Tyrant or Martyr’ and ‘The history of war is always written by the victors’. In his presentation, Richard cleverly drew the two topics together, using sources well known to the group, along with examples of his own research. In the following discussion, Richard was impressed by the children’s knowledge of the English Civil War and the events surrounding Charles I’s Execution, while the children enjoyed the benefits of Richard’s in depth understanding of the different issues, using his expertise of his own areas of study. Richard and the group also enjoyed their interactions over a range of historical events, from the Aztecs to Hannibal to the First World War! The session lasted nearly an hour and a half but it was clear that all involved would have liked to have gone on much longer! Our thanks to Richard for travelling up from Oxford for the evening and to Dr Ansell for organising the occasion.