In the opening six months of 1914, the British Government was primarily concerned with the Irish Home Rule Bill. Governance of Ireland had been a strong theme for Parliament for some time. The third Irish Home Rule Bill received assent in September 1914 but implementation was suspended due to the start of the war. 

France and Russia formed an alliance in 1894. Britain reaches ‘understandings’ with both but it does not commit to fight in case of war. Tensions rise across Europe. Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, is shot dead in Sarajevo, capital of the Austrian province Bosnia. Franz Ferdinand’s killer, Gavrilo Princip, is backed by Serbian terrorist group ‘the Black Hand’. Austria-Hungary issues Serbia with an ultimatum, calling for Serbia to allow Austria-Hungary to be represented in proceedings against the guilty. Serbia agrees to most of the demands, but not this.

As Europe stands on the brink of war, British proposals for a meeting of the great powers are ignored.

Backed up by Germany, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia on 28 July. Russia quickly steps in to protect the small nation and mobilises its army. Germany responds by declaring war on Russia. France is Russia's ally and begins mobilising its forces. As the armies mobilise war becomes almost inevitable. Many believe the war will be a short manageable conflict, but the crisis unfolds so quickly that no statesman is able to regain control of it.

Germany attacks France first through neutral Belgium to eliminate any threat from the west before facing Russia in the east.

Britain and the other great powers of Europe guarantee to protect Belgium’s borders. Belgium appeals to Britain and Britain declares war. After Britain’s entry to the war, the German army lays waste to the country. The British Empire is also dragged into the conflict and the war in Europe starts to expand across the globe.

The first shots of World War One are fired in Africa.

By 1914 the German Empire has four colonies in East, West and South Africa. British and French forces invade Togoland the site of a key German wireless station, Kamina. It provides communications for German ships in the Atlantic. The Germans destroy it to stop it falling into the Allies’ hands and soon after surrender Togoland.

The passing of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), ‘for securing public safety’. Dora gave the government the power to prosecute anybody whose actions were deemed to ‘jeopardise the success of the operations of His Majesty’s forces or to assist the enemy’. It was an act with wide ranging powers and was expanded throughout the war. It governed press censorship and enabled the requisition of land. Other changes or restrictions introduced by the act included: the establishment of British summer time and the changing of the clocks by an hour; pubs licensing hours were fixed and limits were placed on beer strength; whistling was prohibited; and people were not allowed to loiter near bridges. 

The Battle of Mons in Belgium is the British Army’s first engagement in France.

The German Kaiser orders the destruction of Britain’s ‘contemptible little army’ and 70,000 British soldiers are attacked by 160,000 German troops. Both sides use quick-firing artillery and machine guns to devastating effect. Outgunned and outnumbered Britain's tiny Expeditionary Force suffers heavy casualties and is forced to retreat. On the back of this humiliation Britain starts recruiting a large army for the first time.

As the German Army advances towards Paris, French and British soldiers counterattack along the line of the River Marne.

After bloody battles, with over 250,000 casualties on both sides since the war began, the German army and the Allies try to outflank each other to the north until they reach the Belgian coast. The two armies dig in. Defensive lines are drawn right across north-east France. This marks the end of mobile battles and the beginning of four years of trench warfare on the Western Front.

At the Battle of La Bassee in northern France Indian soldiers join the Allies for the first time.

Britain calls on its Empire and 1.5 million Indian soldiers and 1.3 million Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans fight on the allied side. France also draws on its colonies in Africa, including the famous Zouaves – with their bright red and blue uniforms – and the Spahis, both from North Africa. The war is now truly global.

The Allied troops push the German forces in the Flanders area of Belgium. After extensive fighting, the Germans withdraw to the high ground around the town of Ypres and the British hold the town itself. The Ypres Salient is created, over which the two sides would fight for the next four years. The battle finished on 22nd November with both sides digging in for the winter.

In the Far East, Britain has an ally – Japan. Fresh from victory in the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese flex their military muscles.

In the autumn of 1914 British and Japanese forces attack the port of Tsingtao (Qingdao) – a German colony - in China. Although the Germans put up a firm resistance a force of 23,000 Japanese soldiers seizes control. Japan also takes over Germany’s colonies in the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands. Later in the war, Japan sends warships to help protect Allied shipping in the Mediterranean.

The German Navy attacked the British North East coastal towns of Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool between 7.45 and 9.30am. The attack destroyed homes and hit historic buildings. 137 were killed with a further 592 casualties, the majority were civilians including children. The attack resulted in stronger defences on the British coast by the Royal Navy and helped to create the idea that the Germans were monsters by attacking people in their beds.

Men in the trenches along the Western Front began to sing Christmas carols. In some areas along the front, men from each side began to join in with each other’s carols, which, in turn, developed to some exchanging pleasantries shouted across No-man’s Land. The next day, Christmas day, in some areas it was reported that men climbed out of the trenches from either side and met on No-man’s land, in some areas the meeting resulted in impromptu gift sharing and games of football. The unofficial ceasefires, which happened at a number of places, lasted anything from a few hours to a few days. At other places along the Western Front fighting continued. The authorities on both sides disapproved of the friendliness and did their best to ensure that it didn’t happen again. 

Both sides experiment with tear gas in the first winter of the war.

But in January 1915 the Germans use a more deadly chemical – xylyl bromide – killing around 1,000 Russian troops at Bolimov, on the Eastern Front. At Ypres in Belgium gas is used for the first time on a large scale. Germany unleashes thousands of canisters of chlorine gas, causing over 7,000 casualties among the British, Canadian and French. Its effect is devastating, terrifying soldiers and causing uproar at home.

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle was a British offensive in which the British were able to move forward and take their early targets. However, they could not move any further forward due to a lack of supplies. The attack became famous for two reasons: the huge contribution of Indian troops, who now have a permanent memorial at Neuve Chapelle, and because it contributed to the shell crisis.

The Germans attacked the Northern area of the Ypres Salient. The attack was made using the release of Chlorine gas. Canadian troops were sent up to the area where they were able to hold the Allied line. Over the next month the Germans would continue to attack and to use gas. Allied troops used rudimentary gas masks as they tried to repel the attack. Although the Germans pushed their lines further forward towards the town of Ypres, they did not manage to actually break through and get behind the Allied lines. The use of poisonous gas was regulated in warfare, even in 1915, but the Germans argued that they had not fired the gas and therefore had not broken any laws. The battle ended on the 25th May 1915.

Bogged down in a stalemate on the Western Front, the Allies attack Germany's allies in the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks.

Australian, New Zealand, British, French and Indian troops mount an amphibious landing to take the peninsula of Gallipoli, 100 miles south of the Ottoman capital Constantinople. But the Allies are unable to break out of their beachheads and suffer a crushing defeat by the end of the year. Almost a third of the New Zealand troops are killed and there are 28,000 Australian casualties. The Turks suffer 200,000 casualties.

Haig and others attributed the inability to push further their advantage at Neuve Chapelle down to a lack of shell for their artillery. So low were British shell stocks that by May 1915 most British guns were only allowed to fire four shells per day. As a result, Asquith’s Liberal government was forced out and a coalition was formed. Lloyd George became the head of a new Ministry of Munitions, and he set about converting more factories to war production and increasing output. Women were actively recruited to working in the new munitions factories.

A chemist from Manchester, Chaim Weizmann, was charged with finding a way to produce essential equipment for the shells – Acetone, that didn’t involve importuning the main ingredients. Weizmann was successful and, working with Lloyd George, shell production rose from 500,000 in the first five months of the war to 16.4 million in 1915. By 1917, the British Empire was supplying more than 50 million shells a year. By the end of the war, the British Army alone had fired 170 million shells.

One of the most terrifying new weapons of World War One is the U-Boat. These German submarines patrol Atlantic and Mediterranean trade routes.

A civilian passenger liner, the Lusitania, is sunk off the coast of Ireland by a torpedo fired by a U-Boat. More than 1,200 people die – including 128 Americans. Although Germany had issued warnings, the world is shocked by this unprecedented attack on civilians. This devastating event pushes America closer to joining the war.

London was attacked from the air by a German Zeppelin. The airships dropped bombs on buildings, killing and injuring civilians. The attacks continued until the British found ways of attacking the Zeppelins and bringing them down. The last attack was on 19th October 1917. Approximately 200 people were killed and many more injured from the raids.

The Battle of Loos begins when the British launch an attack in Loos, Northern France. It was the largest battle on the Western Front that year and, although the British made some advancement, the attack ultimately failed. The British used gas as part of the attack, after the Germans had set the precedent in April 1915, but that had made little difference. Haig blamed the failure of the attack on the lack of reserves. Rudyard Kipling’s son John (Jack) was killed in the battle. The battle was called off by the 15^th October 1915.

Edith Cavell, a British nurse, was executed by a German firing Squad. She had been working in a hospital in Belgium under German control in August 1915, when she was arrested for helping Belgian and British soldiers to escape German occupied Belgium. She had been kept in solitary confinement before her trial and executed the very next day, after admitting her guilt. Her execution was internationally condemned and she became a symbol of German brutality. She said ‘patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone’.

The Allies began a full retreat from Gallipoli. The attack on Gallipoli by the Allies had started in April 1915 but, after a series of failed attacks, the campaign was declared a disaster. Heavy losses with the troops barely making it off the landing beaches led to one of the worst campaigns of the whole First World War. In autumn 1915, it was decided to evacuate all the Allied troops out of the Turkish held Peninsula. The withdrawal, which was a success, was complete on 6^th January 1916.

By 1916 heavy losses on the Western Front mean Britain’s volunteer army needs reinforcements. On 27 January the government introduces conscription.

All single men aged 18 to 41 can now be sent to war, although thousands are exempted because they have vital jobs in industry which are important to the war effort. In 1917 the US, along with Canada and New Zealand, is forced to bring in conscription after only 73,000 people volunteer for the Western Front.

At the start of 1916 the opposing forces are fighting a frustrating war of attrition on the Western Front.

The Germans plan an offensive on a series of forts around the town of Verdun, believing the French will throw huge resources into defending it only to be annihilated. This is the longest single battle of World War One and lasts nine months. The Germans fail to break through or exhaust the French army and when the battle is over both sides have lost around 300,000 soldiers. For the French, Verdun becomes a symbol of the sacrifice of their country’s youth during the war.

The Sykes-Picot agreement was signed between Britain and France. The agreement devised and drawn up between the British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, divided the Middle East up between the two countries. The agreement undermined promises that other British diplomats had made to the Arab world about self-government once the Ottoman powers were defeated and so was secret until the Bolsheviks released the document in 1917.

The German fleet leaves the safety of its ports in a bid to shell the English coast and attack an element of the British fleet.

It meets the full force of the British Navy off the coast of Denmark, at Jutland. In the biggest naval battle of the war the British lose more ships than the Germans and fail to destroy the German High Seas Fleet. But the German Navy retreats and remains bottled up in its North Sea and Baltic ports. It does not want to risk losing more ships in a full-scale battle. For the rest of the war Germany relies on U-boats to attack British supply lines.

The Battle of the Somme is one of the largest and bloodiest conflicts of World War One. Nearly 20,000 British soldiers die on the first day.

It is part of a massive joint offensive by the Allies on their fronts in France, Italy and Russia. British Commander-in-Chief General Haig hopes to end the deadlock on the Western Front at the Somme. He thinks an artillery bombardment will silence the German guns and allow his infantry to break through. But the Germans dig in and fire on the charging Allied soldiers with machine guns. By November the Allies have advanced five miles. There are over half a million casualties on each side.

The British used their new secret weapon, the tank, for the first time, during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of the Battle of the Somme). Although its achievements that day were limited, its impact was huge and, by the end of the war all sides had developed tanks.

A munitions factory in Silverton in the East End of London exploded, and 69 people were killed and over 400 injured. Extensive damage was done to the area around the factory.

Germany resumes unrestricted U boat activity. This is one of the key factors that draws the United States of America into the war as they are unhappy about the attacks on their vessels and citizens.

In January 1917 Germany sends a message to Mexico, the infamous ‘Zimmerman’ telegram, inciting it to attack the US.

In February the Germans restart their U-boat campaign against commercial ships headed from America to Britain and many American civilians lose their lives. In April, President Woodrow Wilson persuades Congress that America should declare war on Germany. The following year, the arrival of American troops is a great blow to German morale and a decisive turning point in the war. The German army now faces the economic and military might of the world’s rising power.

For the first time four Canadian infantry divisions fought together in an attack on a ridge near Arras, Northern France. Successfully employing the tactic of a creeping barrage, the attack pushed the entrenched Germans from a position they had held for three years. It was a defining moment for the Canadian forces and Canadian identity as a whole. 

Arguably the most successful action on the Ypres Salient, the attack started with the detonation of 19 mines underneath the ridge by the British under the command of General Plumer. All the key objectives were achieved with relatively low casualties from the British.

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the WRNS (Women’s Royal Naval Service – Wrens) is formed. By 1917, it was agreed that more men could be freed up for the Front or on ships, if other roles were given to women. In both services they worked as clerks, in supplies, as mechanics and many other non-combatant roles. When the RAF was formed, in 1918, a women’s section, WRAF, was formed at the same time. All the female units were disbanded after the war. 

The Third battle of Ypres, otherwise known as the Battle of Passchendaele, is one of the most famous First World War battles. Following on from the success of the Battle of Messine, this attack was to finally break the Germans around the Ypres Salient. Pounding artillery bombardments, combined with the worst rain in 30 years, turned the whole area into one big mud pit, making mobility and attack almost impossible. Casualties were high on all sides with the Allies taking only a few miles in the five months of fighting. 

Paul Nash (11 May 1889 – 11 July 1946) returned to France as an official War Artist. He was at art school before the First World War and joined up when war was declared. While recuperating from an injury in spring 1917, he made drawings of his experiences at the Front. When he had recovered, he was sent out to France as a War Artist to record the experiences of the war.

In March 1917 there is a popular uprising in Russia and Tsar Nicholas II abdicates.

The provisional government continues with the highly unpopular and unsuccessful war. In November the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, seize power under the slogan of ‘Peace, bread, land’. Russia leaves the war, signing an armistice in December. In the peace treaty Germany gains large swathes of Eastern Europe.

11 December 1917 General Edmund Allenby, commander of the British ‘Egyptian Expeditionary Force’, entered Jerusalem. British led forces had defeated Turkish force who had surrendered the city two days earlier. The victory by the British and Allenby’s calculated modest entry into the city on foot was described as a key moral victory of the war.

With its armies now free from the threat of Russia in the east, Germany mounts a series of major offensives in France in the spring.

The Germans make a huge breakthrough on a 50-mile front south of Arras, pushing the Allies back 40 miles. The overstretched German Army is unable to sustain its attack. Time is running out as American troops begin to arrive in great numbers.

Bolstered by American troops, the Allies carry out a series of sustained attacks, known as the Hundred Days Offensive.

On 18 July the French, supported by 85,000 fresh US troops, counter-attack the German forces on the Marne and force them to retreat. In August, with more than 10 divisions of soldiers and 50 tanks, backed up by the Royal Air Force, the Allies launch a surprise attack at Amiens. In a series of battles the German Army is pushed further east and the German commanders privately concede the war is lost.

Poet Wilfred Owen MC is killed, attempting to lead his men across the Sambre canal at Ors. He is buried in Ors and is one of the most famous of the war poets. His poems include Anthem for Doomed Youth and Dulce et Decorum est.

Before the Allied armies can invade Germany, an armistice is signed, bringing the war on the Western Front to an end.

In a train carriage at Compiègne in northern France, the Germans surrender and agree to withdraw their forces from France and Belgium. Many German soldiers feel betrayed. The fighting ceases at 11am on 11 November 1918, which for Britain, France and America becomes the time when the war dead are honoured. In 1919 The Treaty of Versailles imposes harsh terms on Germany forcing them to accept the blame for the war and pay huge reparations. 

Five years from the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, the peace Treaty of Versailles was agreed between the Allies and Germany. It removed German treaties of Posen, Polish corridor, Alsace-Lorraine, and all colonies. The army was to be reduced to no more than 100,000 soldiers, with six battleships and no air force. Reparations were set at 132 billion gold marks.

The peace treaty of Saint Germain dismantled the Austro Hungarian Empire, creating new states of Austria and Hungary. Other countries made independent from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire were Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania. The military was limited to 30,000 volunteers and there was to be no Navy. Reparations were to be paid but the full amount was never set. 

The peace treaty of Neuilly was between the Allies and Bulgaria. The Bulgarians for their part in the war, had their military limited to 20,000 volunteers, and were allowed four torpedo boats but no air force. They were to pay reparations of 2.25 billion francs and they lost territory to Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece. 

The foundation of the League of Nations was a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace

The Treaty of Trianon continued the dismantling of the Austro Hungarian Empire. Hungary was created as an independent state by this peace agreement with the Allies. The treaty regulated the status of an independent Hungarian state and defined its borders. The military was limited to 35,000 volunteers and three patrol boats. Reparations were set at 200 million gold crowns which were suspended as the new Hungary could not pay it.

The Treaty of Sevres, between Turkey and the Allies, was a peace treaty that also outlined the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the Middle East had already been divided between Britain and France (Sykes – Picot agreement) and this treaty further divided Turkey and gave away territory in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas. The military was to be limited to only 50,000 soldiers, with a limited Navy. Before the treaty was ratified, the Turkish nationalist leader Ataturk rebelled and took over and the whole treaty negotiation had to be restarted.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was settled in Westminster Abbey. In order to remember all those that were killed in the Great War, the British authorities exhumed a body from the battlefields of France. Known to be a British soldier but not identified by name, the body was transported back to the UK and was led in procession through London as part of the commemoration events of 1920. The coffin was interred in the tomb with the words: ‘They buried him among the kings, because he had done good toward God and toward his house’. (2 Chronicles 24:16) inscribed. It is one of the most visited war graves in the world.