ANDREW SALMON – “TO THE LAST ROUND”

The basic facts are simple. It was the height of summer outdoor activities – Wimbledon, Henley, the Chelsea and Hampton Court Flower Shows already under the belt, cricket at its height, surprisingly good weather and the August silly season rapidly approaching. Nonetheless well over 60 people came to the Korean Cultural Centre on 15 July to listen and watch Andrew Salmon talk about the epic British stand on the Imjin River in April 1951, the subject of his recent book (To The Last Round, Aurum Press, London, 2009).

 

Andrew Salmon

‘Beyond expectations’: that was my contented feeling as I went home. Andrew is an experienced journalist and a good speaker, an occasional stringer for The Times in Seoul, who rigorously checks his sources. His absorbing talk coupled with an excellent selection of slides, divided into easy bites each with its own chapter title, and clear freehand maps of the strategic picture provided a lucid description of the causes of the war, its progress and the extreme significance of the three night stand of Britain’s 29th Infantry Brigade as, outnumbered 7-1, it battled China’s ‘Human Wave’.

A good speaker gets good questions. We had a lengthy session including contributions from several veterans, not least KBVA President Major General Mike Swindells, and others, especially an interesting discussion of Chinese perceptions of the battle and its aftermath. The evening concluded with a Korean buffet during which Andrew signed many copies of his book.

Andrew was stimulated to understand the battle when he accompanied the annual visit of British veterans to Gloster Valley and the battle briefing on the hill overlooking the Imjin. That was in 2001 and the Duke of York was in the party. That, too, was my first experience, six weeks after I arrived in Seoul, and like most people I came to regard the veterans’ visits as one of the highlights of the year, affecting and memorable in so many ways. And not too soon afterwards I bought Andrew’s “Seoul Food Finder”, a 265 page guide to Seoul’s eateries which convinced me of the depth of his research and the breadth of his knowledge.

We are extremely grateful to the KCC for enthusiastically adopting our suggestion to give Andrew a platform during his UK visit, and also for their excellent hospitality. We know Andrew is working on a new work covering the most dramatic and terrible months of the Korean War: “Scorched Earth, Black Snow – The Commonwealth versus Communism, Korea, 1950”, due out in Spring 2011. It would be great to see him again next year.

Jim Thomson

Download the Press Release for more information on Andrew and his book.

Read Philip Gowman's report on London Korean Links

More pictures from the evening

Click on the images to view the gallery

<< Back