Sir Charles Montgomery KBE, Former Director General of Border Force, and Honorary Graduate of the University of Sheffield
Thursday 8 November, Students' Union Auditorium
We were delighted to welcome Vice Admiral Sir Charles Montgomery, KBE to the University on Thursday 8 November to deliver the Basil Hicks Lecture. Sir Charles, an alumnus and honorary graduate of the University, has had a distinguished military career. He is former Director General of the Border Force.
The 2018 Basil Hicks lecture commemorated the Centenary of the end of the First World War and Armistice Day.
Sir Charles Montgomery’s lecture opened by remembering those who lost their lives in the war and outlining the background to Basil Hicks and the Basil Hicks lecture.
Basil Perrin Hicks was the younger son of the University of Sheffield’s founding Vice-Chancellor, Professor William Mitchinson Hicks FRS and his wife Ellen Perrin. Educated at Hanover, Bonn and Cambridge, he joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps at the outbreak of war and received his Commission in September 1914. Basil Hicks went to the Front on 7 August 1915 as a Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment. He was shot and killed whilst leading his men on the morning of 15 September, the first day of the three-month long Battle of Loos, in which 380,000 men lost their lives. He was just 22 years old.
Basil Hicks is commemorated by the Lecture series endowed by his parents.
Sir Charles’ key note lecture focussed on Britain’s maritime security. He discussed how the sea is crucial to global trade - a huge natural resource that offers global prosperity. However, access to the sea is often taken for granted and can be abused through threats such as, terrorism, human and drug trafficking. Sir Charles looked into Britain’s maritime strategy and how the UK needs to respond to the threats posed to that security. Sir Charles concluded that maritime security needs to be one of the nation’s highest strategic priorities - to do this we need to better understand what happens in our own waters, invest, share knowledge with international partners and act early.