How Britain Went to War in 1914
When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914 there was no outbreak of jingoism and no immediate rush to enlist.
People talked about the ‘Great War’ before Britain had even declared war on Germany in August 1914. On the 2nd Robert Saunders, a schoolmaster at Fletching in Sussex, told his son living abroad about the war plans being made in southern England: ‘Everything points to the Great War, so long expected, being upon us, so you can picture the restless excitement among all classes.’ Winifred Tower, at Cowes for the annual yachting festival, left a vivid diary account of her state of mind on the day, August 4th, that war was actually declared on Germany. She had been to a Red Cross meeting and the territorials there were mobilising. The declaration at midnight was ‘almost a relief’:
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