No one cheered at the outbreak of war, and the New York Times recorded in early August 1914 that there ‘no flag waving, no demonstrations, no music-hall patriotism’. My English grandmother’s memoirs, which conclude as her childhood ended in 1914, recalled that her parents were in tears at the table because the politicians had failed. Their misery was further compounded when her older brother returned home in uniform, having joined up not because he wanted to – he was terrified – but because he felt England was endangered by an aggressive Germany and didn’t want to appear a coward to his
...more
