One of the most enduring and damning stories about Britain’s Military Police during the First World War is that they were stationed routinely in the rearward-most trenches on the Western Front in order to threaten, or to actually shoot, any soldier who refused to go "over the top" when so ordered; the notorious "Battle Police".

Even though there are few, if any, credible accounts of the killing of soldiers by these "Battle Police", the notion of such apparently pitiless and unthinking agents of military authority lurking in the trenches, and embodied in the Military Police, still resonates and has entered the popular imagination as yet more evidence of the particular "horrors" of the First World War. Now, as the nation commemorates the centenary of that conflict, this received wisdom has gained something of a second wind. It is, therefore, timely and appropriate to put the case for the defence. Jeremy Green will put that case.

Colonel Jeremy Green OBE is currently Regimental Secretary of the Royal Military Police and Director of the Royal Military Police Museum.

Venue:  Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN, UK

Time:  12.30pm

Entry to this Lunchtime Lecture is free. However, places must be reserved in advance by contacting the NAM customer services team on 020 7730 0717 or info@nam.ac.uk

Please note that the dress code for the Army & Navy Club is smart casual !

--------------------------------

Contact:

National Army Museum

General Enquiries desk

020 7730 0717

info@nam.ac.uk