Dimming of the Day

75 crisis lasts. We deem this declaration to be due to our readers in view of the ill-advised reports which have in the last few days appeared in several newspapers. We prefer to withhold news which might give information to a possible enemy. The anti-war movement, such as it was, mainly Quakers and Socialists, would fade away or be overwhelmed, with the more significant politicians deeming it right or expedient to follow the flag, or at least feeling that that once the boys were over there they had to be supported. The Dartford Chronicle reported on a notice on a park gate saying that a meeting would be held on Monday evening (August 3) asking the public to support a resolution calling on the government to adopt an attitude of neutrality. After waiting a considerable time for an audience which did not assemble, the speakers decided to abandon the meeting. It was, of course, too late by then. Ben Steward, who was working in an office at Tilbury Docks, said, It seemed an ordinary August bank holiday in 1914. It was sunny and warm. I spent it at Mundesley bathing and playing cricket on the beach with school friends. The sun shone on young men and their sweethearts everywhere. Millions of them. They had hardly a care in the world. Nor had I. Later that day, August 3 rd , my train to London was crowded and slow and often halted, to let some troop trains go through, we were told. At half past one in the morning of Tuesday, August 4 th , we arrived hours late at Liverpool Street station. Just another end to another holiday, it seemed, with trains running late. Nobody worried very much. 28 At Lord’s the public schools played on. Cheltenham scored 331 against Haileybury, G.S.Lightfoot 120. Gordon Lightfoot played just this one year for Cheltenham, during which he turned 17: nothing more seems to be known about him. At the Oval Surrey powered on to 488-7, with hundreds for Hayward, Hobbs and Knight. At Taunton Robson took another seven wickets to bowl Derbyshire out, giving him 14 for the match. Essex took a substantial lead against Hampshire and by the close were 363 ahead with four wickets left. Lionel Tennyson recalled that he was staying in his flat at Princes Hotel in Piccadilly, preparatory to taking part in the August Bank Holiday match against Essex at Leyton the next day, when at two in the morning the night porter brought him a message to say that war had been declared and that he must return to duty immediately. The story is slightly spoiled by the fact that the Essex game from which Tennyson had stepped down to join his regiment actually started on 31 July 29 . Yorkshire wrapped up Gloucestershire by an innings and 118 at Harrogate. For Warwickshire, Jeeves and Foster bowled Lancashire out for 128. 28 B.A.Steward, One Journey , self-published, 1981. 29 Lionel, Lord Tennyson, From Verse To Worse , Cassell, 1933 August 1914