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Authors: Stewart Binns

The Shadow of War

Stewart Binns
 
THE SHADOW OF WAR
1914: The Great War Series
Contents

Introduction:
1914

PART ONE: JUNE

Champagne and Plovers' Eggs

Monday 1 June
Assembly Rooms, Presteigne, Radnorshire

Tuesday 2 June
Royal Fusiliers' Albany Barracks, Parkhurst, Isle of Wight

Wednesday 3 June
Dieppe Harbour, Normandy, France

Friday 5 June
Blair Atholl Castle, Perthshire

Saturday 6 June
Duke's Arms, Presteigne, Radnorshire
/
Keighley Green Working Men's Club, Burnley, Lancashire

Monday 8 June
Glen Tilt Experimental Aerodrome, Blair Atholl, Perthshire

Monday 29 June
Mechanics' Institute, Burnley, Lancashire

PART TWO: JULY

Death in a Distant Land

Saturday 11 July
Pear Tree Cottage, Overstrand, Cromer, Norfolk

Sunday 12 July
Kettledrum Inn, Mereclough, Burnley, Lancashire

Wednesday 22 July
Wellington Barracks, Tower of London, City of London

Friday 24 July
Pear Tree Cottage, Overstrand, Cromer, Norfolk

Saturday 25 July
84 Eaton Place, London

Sunday 26 July
Willey Lodge, Presteigne, Radnorshire

Friday 31 July
Admiralty House, Whitehall, London

PART THREE: AUGUST

Into the Boiling Cauldron

Sunday 2 August
Wellington Barracks, Tower of London, City of London

Thursday 6 August
Blair Atholl Castle, Perthshire

Friday 7 August
Pentry Farm, Presteigne, Radnorshire

Saturday 8 August
Keighley Green Working Men's Club, Burnley, Lancashire

Monday 10 August
Cabinet Room, 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London
/
Rouen, Normandy, France
/
Rules Restaurant, Covent Garden, London
/
Royal Fusiliers' Albany Barracks, Parkhurst, Isle of Wight

Monday 24 August
Admiralty House, Whitehall, London
/
Bougnie, West Flanders, Belgium
/
Inchy, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
/
Bavay, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Tuesday 25 August
Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

PART FOUR: SEPTEMBER

Your King and Country Need You

Tuesday 1 September
War Office, Whitehall, London

Saturday 5 September
Wellington Hotel, Brunshaw Road, Burnley, Lancashire
/
Admiralty House, Whitehall, London
/
Rue du Marteroy, Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne, France

Tuesday 8 September
Saint-Ouen-sur-Morin, Seine-et-Marne, France

Thursday 10 September
54 Hart Street, Burnley, Lancashire

Saturday 12 September
Vailly-sur-Aisne, Picardy, France

Monday 14 September
Troyon Sugar Factory, Vendresse, Champagne-Ardenne, France

Tuesday 22 September
Duke's Arms, Presteigne, Radnorshire
/
New Street Station, Birmingham

Thursday 24 September
54 Hart Street, Burnley, Lancashire
/
Docklands, Tiger Bay, Cardiff

Friday 25 September
Boughton House, Kettering, Northamptonshire

Monday 28 September
Hereford General Hospital, Herefordshire

PART FIVE: OCTOBER

Race to the Sea

Friday 2 October
Keighley Green Working Men's Club, Burnley, Lancashire
/
Victoria Station, London

Monday 12 October
Town Hall, Great Harwood, Lancashire

Saturday 17 October
Herlies, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Sunday 18 October
Royal Welch Fusiliers' Regimental HQ, Hightown Barracks, Wrexham, Clwyd

Sunday 25 October
Neuve-Chapelle, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Wednesday 28 October
White Drawing Room, Royal Apartments, Windsor Castle, Berkshire

Thursday 29 October
Reform Club, Pall Mall, London

Friday 30 October
Poperinghe, West Flanders, Belgium

PART SIX: NOVEMBER

Graveyard of the Old Contemptibles

Wednesday 4 November
Merris, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France

Sunday 8 November
Zwarteleen, West Flanders, Belgium

Monday 9 November
British Army Field Hospital, Provoost Lace Mill, Poperinghe, West Flanders, Belgium

Wednesday 11 November
Hooge, West Flanders, Belgium

Sunday 29 November
Belcaire, Lympne, Kent

PART SEVEN: DECEMBER

Christmas Truce

Tuesday 8 December
HMS
Inflexible
, Falkland Islands, South Atlantic

Wednesday 23 December
Keighley Green Working Men's Club, Burnley, Lancashire

Friday 25 December
Blair Atholl Castle, Perthshire
/
British Army Field Hospital, Provoost Lace Mill, Poperinghe, West Flanders, Belgium
/
10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London
/
Kemmel, West Flanders, Belgium

Epilogue

Maps

Glossary

Dramatis Personae

Casualty Figures of the Great War

Genealogies

Acknowledgements

Follow Penguin

To all those who endured the Great War

Introduction: 1914

It is the early summer. Britain has an aura of timelessness; it appears to be a land of serene invincibility, populated by people blessed by prosperity and contentment. Britannia's mighty empire stretches around the world; her navy is pre-eminent; her army is a distinguished and proud elite of marksmanship and discipline.

But the patina of imperial greatness is fading; all is not as the country's privileged elite would like to think it is. The clear skies of June 1914 are misleading. The chill wind of social discontent is beginning to swirl around this sceptred isle.

Her poor and dispossessed are restless, no longer prepared to accept the oppression born of a centuries-old class system. The world is changing rapidly; the Empire is a drain on Britain's dwindling resources and ageing industries. Only a few decades after it reached its zenith, Britain's Victorian heyday is already a thing of the past.

Yet more ominously, there is also a terrible storm beginning to foment in Europe, the elements of which are the vainglorious posturings of Europe's ancient powers. It will soon become a freak and ferocious tempest that will be calamitous for all engulfed by it. When it strikes, its savagery will be beyond anyone's comprehension and will consume the whole world.

This is the story of five communities of Britain's people, their circumstances very different, but who will all share in the tragedy that is to come. They and their homeland will be changed for ever by the catastrophic events of the Great War.

Part One: June
 
CHAMPAGNE AND PLOVERS' EGGS

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