Allen Packwood & Richard Dannatt
Allen Packwood, is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre. Allen was co-curator of “Churchill and the Great Republic,” a Library of Congress exhibition and of “Churchill: The Power of Words,” a display at the Morgan Library in New York from June through September 2012.
Allen’s job has taken him to Bermuda, Cuba, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and in 2011 he accompanied Churchill’s granddaughter Celia Sandys and Churchill’s daughter Lady Soames on a “Chasing Churchill” Mediterranean tour. He works closely with the International Churchill Society and with the Estate of Winston S. Churchill.
Allen edited the recent guide to the Churchill Archives Centre, and has lectured extensively on Churchill in the United Kingdom and the United States. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was awarded an OBE for services to the archives and scholarship in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
General Lord Richard Dannatt served with the 1st Battalion in Northern Ireland (where he won the Military Cross), Cyprus, and Germany, and commanded the Battalion in the Airmobile role from 1989 to 1991. From 1994 to 1996 he commanded the 4th Armoured Brigade in Germany and Bosnia. He took command of the 3rd (United Kingdom) Division in January 1999.In 2000 he returned to Bosnia as the Deputy Commander Operations of the Stabilization Force, and from 2001 to 2002 he was the Assistant Chief of the General Staff in the Ministry of Defense before taking command of NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. In 2005 he became Commander-in-Chief, Land Command.
Richard Dannat became Chief of the General Staff in 2006, leading the British Army during its most challenging time in the post-war era as it fought two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He handed over as Chief forty years to the day from when he first joined the Army. In 2009 HM The Queen appointed him Constable of the Tower of London and in 2010 he was appointed as a Crossbencher to the House of Lords.
Lord Dannatt is Chairman of Trustees of the British Normandy Memorial, which will be the focus of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day commemoration activities.