Authors: Stewart Binns
The Shadow of War
1914: The Great War Series
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
To all those who endured the Great War
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.
