At the start of the First World War, Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, which meant he was the politician responsible for the Royal Navy. As a world maritime empire, Britain relied on its huge navy, so the position was an immensely powerful one in 1914. Was Churchill’s decision to send the navy to the Dardanelles a tragic mistake or a clever plan?

Here Dr. Warren Dockter – and expert on Churchill’s links with Islam and the Ottoman Empire – gives a very different perspective: he says that Churchill hoped that a show of naval strength would lead to a coup in the Ottoman Empire, and that Britain and Turkey would become allies. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out that way.