The Lamps Went Out: Sir Edward Grey and the 'War to End All Wars'

By Mike Fraser

Sir Edward Grey was a Northumbrian who was at the centre of the events leading up to the ‘war to end all wars’. Born into a privileged background, his life was blighted by misfortune. His father, a former soldier who was Equerry to the Prince of Wales, died at 39 when Edward was 12, the eldest of seven children. Both his wives pre-deceased him, two brothers were killed by animals in Africa and both his Northumberland home and his cottage in Hampshire were destroyed by fire. Further, later in life he was almost blind.

On the evening of 3rd August 1914, Grey, then the British Foreign Secretary and Berwick Division MP, looked out of the Foreign Office window and famously declared that “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime”. The next day Britain declared war on Germany. Even he though could not have envisaged the horror of the four years of war which were to follow. This study examines the key choices Grey and others made in the weeks leading up to the beginning of war and the impact these choices had on the rest of his life.

Grey remains a controversial figure. Mike Fraser addresses the controversies surrounding him while presenting a sympathetic portrait of Britain’s longest continuously serving Foreign Secretary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Button Publications
• Release date: May 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311526359

Mike Fraser

Mike Fraser (BA, MSc, MPhil) is a proud Scot. He is a retired College Lecturer who lives in North Northumberland with his very patient wife Margaret. He is on the Management Committee of Belford Museum. His main interests are walking, photography, culture and sport, but he also spends far too much time on Twitter.In recent years he has become interested in local political history and in 2013 completed a well-received study of Sir William Beveridge as MP for the Berwick Division. At present he is researching First World War Military Service Tribunals in the Berwick upon Tweed area and in 2015 he intends to return to his study of the life of Sir Edward Grey MP, this time focussing on his early political career.

Book preview

The Lamps Went Out

Sir Edward Grey

and the War to End all Wars

Mike Fraser

A Blue Button Publication

Smashwords Edition

Publishing History

First Published in print in Great Britain in 2014

by Blue Button Publications,

Berwick upon Tweed TD15 2RH.

Copyright Mike Fraser and Blue Button Publications.

ISBN 978-1-907131-70-7

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover design by Bluebell.

Photographs of Fallodon Hall, Embleton Church and all the Memorials by Mike Fraser

Editing and Layout by Bluebell.

Contents

Illustrations List

A Timeline of the ‘July Crisis’ in 1914

The Lamps Went Out

Personal Background

MP for the Berwick Division

Foreign Secretary

Threat to Britain’s Economic Power

Expeditionary Force Agreement

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Cabinet Opposition to Involvement

Decision

Major Turning Point

Threat to the French Coast

European Conflict Becomes World War

Coalition Government

After the War

Impressions

Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author

More History & Biography from Blue Button Publications

Acknowledgements

Lucia and Mark Bridgeman – for their hospitality at Fallodon Hall and for allowing the author access to documents and photos

The Reverend Phillip Harratt – for permission to take photos at Embleton Parish Church and for providing information about Mandell Creighton and Sir Edward Grey

Figure 1 Sir Edward Grey

Illustrations

Sir Edward Grey

Sir Edward Grey image

Fallodon Hall, today

Memorial to George Henry Grey

Memorial to George Grey

Memorial to Edward Grey’s two brothers

Embleton Church

Sir Edward Grey

Herbert Henry Asquith

King Edward VII

King George V

Haldane & Kitchener

Balkan Conference, London 1913

Archduke Franz Ferdinand & Family

Paul Cambon, French Ambassador to Great Britain

Prince Lichnowsky German Ambassador to Great Britain

Lloyd George

Bonar Law

Sir Edward Grey

Sir Edward Grey

Memorial in Embleton Church

Memorial at Fallodon Hall

Grey, Churchill & Kitchener

Sir Edward Grey in 1914

Figure 2 Image of Sir Edward Grey

A Timeline of ‘the July Crisis’ in 1914

June 28th – The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo.

July 5th – Austria-Hungary seeks German support for a war against Serbia in the event of Russian support for Serbia. Germany provides a ‘blank cheque’ of support.

July 23rd – Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia

July 28th – Austria-Hungary denounces the Serbian response to the ultimatum and declares war on Serbia. Russia mobilises.

July 31st – Germany warns Russia to stop mobilising. Russia declares that the mobilisation is merely against Austria-Hungary.

August 1st – Germany declares war on Russia. Italy declares its neutrality. Germany and the Ottoman Empire sign a secret alliance treaty.

August 2nd – Germany invades Luxembourg.

August 3rd – Germany declares war on France and Belgium. Germany invades Belgium.

August 4th – Britain protests the violation of Belgian neutrality which is guaranteed by inter-national treaty. The German Chancellor states that the treaty is just a scrap of paper. Britain declares war on Germany.

The Lamps Went Out

Sir Edward Grey and the ‘War to End All Wars.’

The subject of this study is the role of Sir Edward Grey in relation to the First World War. Like Christopher Clark (2013), the present writer considers the ‘how’ (the decisions made by key individuals), not the ‘why’ (i.e. the underlying causes – the isms such as nationalism, militarism and imperialism), as regards what was optimistically described as the war to end all wars. As Margaret Macmillan (2013) argues there are always choices and here the focus is on the choices made by Grey in his role as Foreign Secretary and their impact on the rest of his life.

The study begins near the end of the drama. On the evening of 3rd August 1914,