The Adventure Circle Presents: The Younghusband Lecture
Wednesday 25th June at 18.30 | The Drawing Room | £15.00 per person
Join us for a new talk hosted by the Adventure Circle: The Younghusband Lecture with Howard Leedham.
Named in honour of the Edwardian explorer and Rag member Sir Francis Younghusband, this inaugural event offers club members a unique opportunity to hear directly from those who have embraced the spirit of adventure in some of the world’s most remote and challenging places.
Following closely on the heels of the Adventure Circle’s recent trip to Jordan, (where eleven pioneers of the RAG covered 55Km by camel through the Wadi Rum desert) the adventurer Howard Leedham MBE will join us to deliver the story of his momental camel trek where he retraced the famous route of T.E. Lawrence across Saudi Arabia and Jordan in aid of a veterans charity.
It promises to be an enjoyable and thoughtful evening, with stories that speak to the real meaning of adventure.
Howard Leedham MBE began his military career as a Royal Navy clearance diver, he advanced to become a commando pilot and Special Forces officer. Notably, he was the first British officer to command a U.S. Marine Corps squadron on active duty—an unprecedented feat in modern military cooperation.
After two decades in the military, Howard transitioned to aviation, flying both commercial and private jets. In 2003, he was recruited by the U.S. Department of State to lead a $65 million border security initiative in Pakistan. There, he trained and commanded a 50-man militia, conducting helicopter-borne operations against Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border. His firsthand account of this mission is documented in his book, Ask Forgiveness Not Permission: The True Story of an Operation in Pakistan’s Badlands.
In recent years, Leedham has turned his focus to adventurous exploration, notably retracing the 1100 km route of T.E. Lawrence—better known as Lawrence of Arabia—across the Arabian Desert in 25 days on behalf of the SFC Benevolent Fund.
Mounted on camels and traveling in traditional fashion, Leedham and his companions journeyed from Al-Wajh, Saudi Arabia through to Aqaba, following in the footsteps of the legendary route mapped out by Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The effort was both a physical and historical challenge, aimed at connecting modern audiences with the remarkable feats of Lawrence and the Arab Revolt.