Dimming of the Day

78 August 1914 The Times did have room for a comment on ‘the servant problem’ but it was basically a plug for The Times’ own advertising service. At Canterbury the Old Stagers, as feared, had cancelled. About 7,000 people turned up for the start of the Canterbury Week, though ‘the club tents were sparsely populated.’ Sussex were 327-4 after the first day, Joe Vine, whose long Sussex career would continue until 1922, making 140. Over 14,000 people were there at the Oval to see Hobbs make 226 (in 260 minutes) as Surrey reached 472-5 against Nottinghamshire. At Old Trafford play did not start until 3.00 pm by which time the Lancashire captain, A.H.Hornby, had to leave ‘in answer to a call from the War Office’ and Reggie Spooner took over the captaincy. Rhodes, Hirst and Drake bowled Lancashire out for 162. The Times gave a full score for the match between Lord’s Schools and The Rest, but restricted the county championship games to summarised scores. At Derby Mr J.Chapman, fielding for Derbyshire, was also called away by the War Office ‘in connection with the purchase of Army horses’ and H.Wild was allowed to take his place. John Chapman had been the club captain from 1910 to 1912 and would be again after the War. The current captain, R.R.C.Baggallay, was a gentleman but a player of no great distinction – his career average was 11.86. He won both the MC and DSO. On 5 August, the news was that war had been declared. Germany had not responded to the note about Belgian neutrality and so the formal declaration of war was as from 11 pm on 4 August. The Times immediately insisted that Germany had been planning this for years (striking quite a different note from a few days before). Across the top of the Daily Express it said, ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’ War had been declared. ‘Stopping the world’s bully’, said the Express . So what did this mean to people on the street or at the cricket? There had been wars since the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, but they had either been far distant or Britain had not been involved. British troops had not fought in Europe since 1815. The colonial or the Crimean, even the Boer War, had not greatly disturbed the tenor of life at home. So if you were a professional cricketer on 5 August you would have turned up for work as you might at the foundry or the office. It was not for you to suggest that the office might be closed. The early impact was felt as at least five county captains, Sir Archibald White (Yorkshire), A.H.Hornby (Lancashire), Pelham Warner (Middlesex), Arthur Carr (Nottinghamshire) and R.R.C.Baggallay (Derbyshire) left the scene to join their regiments. None of them, apart from Warner who made one appearance against Surrey later in the month, played after 5 August. They were to be followed by a sixth: H.P.Chaplin was called away during Sussex’s match against Middlesex which started on 6 August. In Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man , Siegfried Sassoon as George Sherston says,