At the District Spring Social Evening held on 13 April almost 80 members of AMD London, their family, friends and guests, had the pleasure of listening to Mark Smith deliver the second part of his Victoria Cross talk - "Hearts of Oak" - via Zoom. Mark had presented the first part - "For Valour" - at our Autumn Social Evening back in November 2019.
He kept us enthralled with stories of extreme bravery shown by some of the 1355 recipients of the VC; stories which illustrated the types of motivation behind those humbling acts - doing your duty, helping friends and colleagues, or simply "getting angry" at the enemy.
All the stories Mark told support the quotation from Winston Churchill - "To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents...",or, alternatively "cometh the hour, cometh the man."
There were several questions from the audience, after which the District Grand Prefect thanked Mark.
Our grateful thanks to Mark for such a fascinating evening, and for staying on afterwards to chat more about the VC and also his time on Antiques Roadshow.
