Sources by Chapter
Chapter 1: First Shots
Gerald Legge letters from Sudan: Staffordshire record office (Stafford), D 859/⅓/8. Clifford Gothard’s diary, Stafford, D4054/2/4. For a description of Kordofan province (about the size of France) in the 1920s, when Staffordshire Regiment soldiers served there, see the Staffordshire Knot annual for 1928, pages 11-12.
Alan Brooke’s letters from India: Liddell Hart centre for military studies, King’s College London (KCL).
Eva Tibbitts’ letter from Canada: Gloucestershire record office (Gloucester), D5049/2.
Chapter 2: Ways to Die
William Thomas Pickbourne’s journal: Nottinghamshire record office (Nottingham), DD2560/1/5.
Robert Blakeby’s diary: City of Westminster archives (Westminster), Accession 1489/7.
Inquest cases from newspapers: Walsall history centre, glue factory worker burned to death, Walsall Observer, May 23, 1914; miner’s wife died of burns, Walsall Observer, April 11, 1914.
William Thomas Swift diary for 1914: Gloucester, D398¼5.
Lord Charles Beresford’s unveiling of statue to the captain of the Titanic: Lichfield record office (Lichfield), Lichfield Mercury, July 31, 1914.
Chapter 3: What is an Englishman?
Philip Gibbs’ story of arrest in Belgrade in 1912: Newcastle central library, The Graphic, August 1, 1914. See also his memoir The Pageant of the Years, (1946), page 93.
Guy Paget memoir: Leicestershire record office (Leicester), DE 4795/26/1.
Overnight journey by ‘WM’ to Scotland: Tamworth library, Tamworth Herald, August 8, 1914.
Eric Bennett memoir: Stafford, File 4274.
Carpentier-Smith heavyweight boxing fight: Sheffield central library, Sheffield Daily Telegraph, July 15 to 18, 1914, among other newspapers of those days.
Arthur Ellerker Ross’ scrapbook and account of the Beverley Company of the Church Lads Brigade: East Riding archives (Beverley). For his father Henry’s occupation, Kelly’s North and East Riding Directory (1913), page 466.
Chapter 4: The Quid Pro Quo
Lord St Aldwyn’s speech at Sandon: Wolverhampton archives (Wolverhampton), Express & Star, July 24, 1914.
Richard Holt MP’s journal: Liverpool city archives (Liverpool), 920 DUR 1/10.
Sir Richard Cooper MP’s ‘frank’ speech: Walsall Observer, April 11, 1914. Ben Tillett’s speech, Walsall Observer, May 23, 1914. Philip Ashworth speech, Lichfield Mercury, May 1, 1914.
Suffragette assault on Mr McKinnon Wood: Market Harborough Advertiser, July 21, 1914, for example. Bow Street magistrate’s remarks: Holborn library, London borough of Camden, St Pancras Gazette, July 3, 1914. Crowd unfriendly to shouting suffragette outside Buckingham Palace, Wolverhampton Express & Star, July 23, 1914, for example.
New Scotland Yard memo and militant suffragettes’ photo-parade: Lincolnshire record office (Lincoln), Constab 2/2/3/1.
Chapter 5: On the Brink
Robin Page Arnot, typed memoir, dated 1974: Hull history centre (Hull), U DAR (2)/2/6. With the Fabians for one night only was Leonard Woolf; see his Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911 to 1918, (1964), page 167.
Gordon Shephard helping with famous delivery of guns to Irish nationalists at Howth: Royal Air Force museum archives, Hendon, north London (RAF Museum), Memoirs of Brigadier General Gordon Shephard, privately printed, (1924), edited by Shane Leslie.
Donald Weir’s July 1914 letter home from India, ‘what with the trouble in Dublin’: Leicester, DE 2913, bundle 2.
Frank Balfour letters from Sudan to ‘my dear Irene’: Hull, DDFA /3/6/26.
War reporter E Ashmead Bartlett’s journey from London to Sofia: Leeds central library, Yorkshire Post, August 15, 1914.
A T Daniel’s cycle holiday in France: Uttoxeter library, Uttoxeter Advertiser and Times, September 23 and 30 and October 7, 1914.
Chapter 6: The Island Club
Captain Sycamore, towed by the German Kaiser: Essex record office (Chelmsford), Essex County Standard, August 15, 1914, a story it admitted it lifted from the East Anglian Daily Times.
Maynard Willoughby Colchester-Wemyss’ letters to the King of Siam: Gloucester, D37/1.
Grey’s line ‘the lamps are going out all over Europe’: from Life, Journalism and Politics by J A Spender, volume 2, (1927), page 13.
Chapter 7: The Long Bank Holiday
Sir Mark Sykes MP’s letter: Hull, U DDSY /x2/½f/27.
H C Mitchell in Brussels: Tamworth Herald, August 8, 1914.
Colin Davidson sending telegrams to tell the British Empire it was at war: Memoirs of a Conservative, JCC Davidson’s Memoirs and Papers 1910-37, edited by Robert Rhodes James (1969), page 20.
Prime minister Herbert Asquith on the ‘cheering crowds of loafers and holiday-makers’ in Downing Street: August 4 entry in his Memories and Reflections, (1928), volume 2.
Emily MacManus in front of Buckingham Palace on the outbreak of war: from her memoir Matron of Guy’s, (1956), page 87.
Anonymous witness in front of Buckingham Palace: Leeds library, Pudsey and Stanningley News, August 14, 1914.
Robert Ramsey diary: London Metropolitan archives, F/Rmy/028. For the suggestion that the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace were not actors in some open-air theatre but were loyally ‘hymning to the king’, see The Men From The Greenwood .... Being the War History of the 11th (Service) Battalion Sherwood Foresters, by Percy Fryer, (1920), page 10. Copy in Nottingham library.
Hearing of the outbreak of war in Wellington, New Zealand: Sydney Morning Herald, August 7, 1914. For a remarkable photograph showing Adolf Hitler among the outbreak of war crowd in Munich, see Ian Kershaw’s Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris (1998).
‘All wars are popular on the day of their declaration’: War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, volume one, (1933), page 42.
Rhodesia Trading Company’s foiled plan to raise prices 15 per cent: Derbyshire record office (Matlock), Microfilm 781, TC 2/520.
George Thorp diary: Hull, L/DIGT. For his home and work addresses, Kelly’s Hull Directory 1914, pages 68 and 542.
Chapter 8: The News
GvC Harper diary: Churchill College archives, Cambridge, HRPR 1/1. James Somerville diary: SMVL 2/1.
Donald Weir, longing ‘to have a dig at the Germans’: Leicester, DE 2913, bundle 2.
Chapter 9: Spies
George Rose diary: Chelmsford, D/DU 418/15.
Burtonians threatened for taking photographs of warships at Grimsby: Burton Daily Mail, August 8, 1914.
Bert Faulkner mistaking northerner for a German: Walsall Observer, August 22, 1914.
Mr Durose mistaking an Indian prince for a German, and other national defence work by Lincolnshire police: Lincoln, Constab 2/3/½/1.
Swearing in of special constables at Newark, and the court case of the missing Southwell shoes: Newark Advertiser, September 9, 1914.
Memo by Major Kell to Winston Churchill on the suspect von Bulow: Churchill archives, microfilm, Char 13/44/57.
Chapter 10: Serving Men
Francis Grenfell’s farewell letter to Churchill: Churchill archives, microfilm, Char 13/45/22.
A drunk asking Christopher Hollis’ father to pray for him: Christopher Hollis, Along the Road to Frome, (1958), page 22.
The drunk Frederick Jewitt at Beverley railway station: East Riding archives, Beverley Guardian, August 8, 1914.
Herbert Strutt and marching soldiers in near-accident on the road: Derby local history library, Derby Advertiser, September 18, 1914.
Chapter 11: Spectators on the Shore
Rev Denys Yonge diary: Chelmsford, D/DCI 358/26.
Dorothy Wright diary: Matlock, D5430/49/5.
Minutes book of the Burton upon Trent branch of the Soldiers and Sailors’ Families Association (SSFA): Lichfield, D34/1.
Arthur Bryan letters to his wife: Matlock, D5948/1 microfilm M1029.
Lady Gwendoline Churchill letters to her husband: Churchill archives, PCHL 5/1.
Chapter 12: Politics
The kaiser as a ‘poor misguided man’: Market Harborough Advertiser, August 11, 1914.
Speeches on Britain having ‘clean hands’: Ashbourne Telegraph, August 7, and Lichfield Mercury, August 21, 1914.
Lord St Aldwyn letters to his son: Gloucester, D 2455/F3/10/¼.
Lord Milner letter to Philip Lyttelton Gell: Matlock, D3287 MIL 1/657.
Chapter 13: Business as Usual?
Joseph Leslie Dent’s diary: from History of the South Staffordshire Regiment 1705-1923, by James P Jones, (1923), pages 242-59. Copy in Stafford library.
Harold Cook postcard promising to write from Berlin: Lincoln, LLHS 38/4/2.
Socialists assaulted for speaking in public against the war: Harry Pollitt, Serving my Time: An apprenticeship to Politics, (1940), pages 64-66. Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography, page 63. For a Scottish socialist against the war (and all for a fight to defend anti-war meetings), see Pioneering Days by Thomas Bell, (1941), pages 101-4.
Papers of the supplies in time of war sub-committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence: Liverpool, 920 DUR 14/34.
Francis Meynell’s letters to family: Stafford, D861/P/1/12.
J C ‘Farmer’ White having to work on the farm instead of play cricket for Somerset against Yorkshire at Weston super Mare: Bristol central library, Western Daily Press, August 28, 1914.
Chapter 14: Recruiting
Colonel Chichester not seeing any disadvantages to joining the army: Cambridge central library, Huntingdonshire Post, September 11, 1914.
Robert Thornewill’s talk to his workmen: Burton Evening Gazette, September 1, 1914.
Harold Begbie poem, widely reprinted from the Daily Chronicle: Cannock library, Cannock Advertiser, September 5, 1914.
Miles Thomas shocked, angered and shamed by a white feather: Out on a Wing. An autobiography, by Sir Miles Thomas, (1964), page 38-9.
Chapter 15: United?
Labour MP Jimmy Thomas’ support for the war: Derby Mercury, September 11, 1914. See also My Story, by J H Thomas, (1937), pages 37-38.
The letters between Churchill, Lord Charles Beresford and Arthur Lee MP after Beresford shot his mouth off too far at the Carlton Club: Churchill archives, Char 13/43.
An example of the shout ‘shall we be beaten?!’: Burton Daily Mail, August 6, 1914. Also, unrelated, examples of the ‘are we down-hearted?!’ cry: Walsall Observer, August 8, 1914; and British troops shouting it as they landed at Boulogne; The Times, August 18, 1914.
Complaints in newspapers of volunteers for the army having to queue: for example, Sheffield Daily Independent, September 2, 1914; and Derby Daily Telegraph, September 7, 1914 (with official excuse the next day).
Chapter 16: Food
The Charles Dickens quotation comes from The Dent uniform edition of Dickens’ Journalism, volume 4, The Uncommercial Traveller and other papers 1859-70, edited by Michael Slater and John Drew (2000), page 98.
C W Colchester-Weymss and the woman he almost married, Miss C Quinlon Day, are each named in Kelly’s Gloucestershire Directory (1914), page 364.
Chapter 17: Rumours
George Lakeman denying he was a German: Newmarket Journal, August 22, 1914.
Court case of Ashbourne man warning ‘the Germans are coming’: Uttoxeter Advertiser, August 26, 1914.
On rumours of Russian troops passing through England: Memoirs of Sir Almeric Fitzroy volume 2, page 569. Robert Bull diary: Chelmsford, T/B 245/3. For his occupation, see Kelly’s Essex Directory (1914), page 90. Miss Laura Partridge told in France the Russians were coming: Willesden Chronicle, September 4, 1914.
Churchill airing the idea of bringing Russian troops to Ostend: The Churchill Documents volume 6, (1972), page 31.
Chapter 18: First Returns
William Simpson writing home: Ashbourne Telegraph, September 4, 1914.
Colonel Lang with letter from his son in the trenches: Bristol Times and Mirror, September 4, 1914.
Dick Wallis posting letter in normal postbox to get round army censorship: Walsall local history centre, 145/4.
Chapter 19: Going
Lieutenant Brian Horrocks cheered off from Chatham: A Full Life, by Lieutenant General Sir Brian Horrocks, (1960), page 15.
Ambulance driver Albert Batty’s diary and reminisces: Gloucester, D3435.
Walter Bloem’s comment on broken down British lorries he passed: Vormarsch, by Walter Bloem, (1916), translated from the German by G C Wynne as The Advance from Mons 1914, page 102. Copy at RAF Museum, Hendon.
The fatal runaway wagon in Bristol: Bristol Times and Mirror, August 11, 1914. For Park Street shops, Kelly’s Bristol Directory (1914), page 223.
For the farewells and first marches by Territorials: Ashbourne Advertiser, August 7, 1914; Uttoxeter Advertiser, August 19 and 26, 1914.
Hinckley Territorials’ march to Loughborough, with female followers: Aubrey Moore, A Son of the Rectory, (1982), page 120.
Description by ‘An Old Newarker’ of troops leaving Derby: Newark Advertiser, August 19, 1914.
Oliver Lyttleton writing to his mother: Churchill archives, CHAN 1/8/2.
Kitchener’s outlook as reported in The Times of August 15, 1914, and much reported in the press in following days: The First World War Personal Experiences of Lieutenant Colonel C A Court Repington, volume one, (1920), pages 21-22.
Colonel G S Foljambe ‘ashamed’ of returned Territorials: Newark Advertiser, September 9, 1914.
Inquest of men killed in aeroplane crash at Netheravon: Bristol Times and Mirror, August 13, 1914.
Chapter 20: Forward
The uncensored letter by the Woodin brothers on their crossing to Rouen: Alfreton and Belper Journal, September 4, 1914.
Private John Harding’s story: Essex County Standard, September 12, 1914.
Charles Wallbank’s diary and notes: Wolverhampton archives, DX-714/1.
Private Dixon’s story: Pudsey and Stanningley News, September 11, 1914.
Mr and Mrs Taylor of Quievrain’s story: Loughborough Echo, August 28, 1914.
Private Thomas Cross’ story: Cannock Advertiser, September 19, 1914.
Private John Jennings’ story: Derby Advertiser, September 11, 1914.
Bombardier William Simpson’s story: Ashbourne Advertiser, September 11, 1914.
Private Harry Mason’s story: Walsall Observer, September 12, 1914.
Private Charles Broadhurst’s story: Walsall Observer, September 19, 1914.
Privates Charles Dudley Moore and JT Tait’s story: Burton Gazette, September 10, 1914.
Private Frederick Bruce’s story: Cambridge Daily News, September 15, 1914.
Private CE McLoughlin’s story: Burton Evening Gazette, September 16, 1914.
Sgt Crockett’s story: Burton Evening Gazette, September 9, 1914.
Private Shepherd’s story: Nottingham Guardian, September 25, 1914 (and lifted by the Newark Advertiser, September 30, 1914).
Chapter 21: Back
Lieutenant Macleod’s story: Cambridge Daily News, September 10, 1914.
Sgt Bird and Private Woolgar’s story: Newark Advertiser, September 30, 1914.
A bird’s eye view of the retreat: Recollections of an Airman, by Lieutenant Colonel LA Strange, (first published 1933; 1935 edition), page 41. Copy at RAF Museum, Hendon.
Unidentified sergeant in bayonet fight; and ‘searchlights’ described: Sheffield Daily Independent, September 4, 1914.
Bugler Tom Reeves’ story: Derby Advertiser, September 11, 1914.
Lance Corporal Ball’s story: Walsall Advertiser, September 26, 1914.
Sidney Clive’s diary: KCL, Clive II/1.
‘Lessons of the battle’: December 1933, Battle of Le Cateau August 26, 1914 tour of the battlefield, HMSO. Copy at KCL.
Motorcycle messenger J K Stevens’ story: Cambridge Daily News, September 15, 1914.
Asquith’s widely-reported deploring in the House of Commons on August 31 of The Times’ August 30 report on the ‘broken’ British army: for example, Bristol Times and Mirror, September 1, 1914. That offending Sunday edition of The Times is not among the digital editions available at some libraries and archives, but see We Thundered On: 200 years of The Times 1785-1985, by Philip Howard, (1985), pages 87-88; and the article by John Terraine, The Impact of Mons, August 1914, in History Today, August 1964.
Lady French’s appeal for socks: The Times, August 29, 1914, and widely reported the following week. Lord Dartmouth’s similar appeal in Staffordshire: for example, Burton Evening Gazette, September 4, 1914.
Navy wireless operator William Cash’s story: Wolverhampton Express & Star, August 15, 1914.
Chapter 22: An Outing to Ostend
Copy of George Aston’s account of his command of the expedition to Ostend: copy at KCL, Aston 1/8. Admiralty messages to Aston: Churchill archives, Char 13/36.
Chapter 23: To the End of the World
Letters of Gerald Legge to his parents from Gallipoli, and letters of condolence to Lord Dartmouth: Stafford, D 859/⅓/9. For the last days of Legge and hundreds of men in his battalion at Suvla Bay in August 1915, see The History of the Seventh South Staffordshire Regiment, edited by Major A H Ashcroft (1919), pages 11-15; copy in Wolverhampton archives.