Ireland again tops the Cabinet agenda. Harcourt reports that the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, arrived at Cabinet half an hour late following talks with the German ambassador. He describes the situation in Europe as ‘very bad’ with the Austrians refusing to continue negotiations in St Petersburg. News reached the Cabinet during its meeting that Russia has mobilised troops in ‘certain towns on her Southern frontier.’

The Cabinet discussed Britain’s liabilities for the guarantee of Belgian neutrality under the terms of the European treaty of 1839. Harcourt outlines the difficulty of the British position: ‘Russia says we can prevent Europ[ean] war by saying we shall support France – Germany says we can prevent it by saying we shall not do so.’ Harcourt writes that Foreign Secretary Grey ‘is afraid that at any moment France may ask us if we mean to stand by her.’ No Cabinet decision was made on this matter today.

Harcourt remains committed to leaving the goverment if there is a decision for war. He claims to be certain that ‘I can take at least 9 colleagues out with me on resigination.’ He also notices a change in the attitudes of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill who are ‘less bellicose today.’ He suspects that their opinions fluctuate with popular opinion and that soon they will be ‘wobbling back to war.’

Churchill has moved his ships in the North Sea to ‘war stations.’ Grey is proposing to meet the French and German ambassadors in the afternoon and will inform the German ambassador that he ‘may not assume that we [Britain] shall not join France.’ The French ambassador is to be told ‘you must not assume that we shall join you.’ Harcourt believes this to be a ‘sound, strong & honest diplomatic position.’

After Cabinet, Harcourt went to the Colonial Office to send ‘Precautionary telegrams’ to the British colonies and dominions.

At the close of the day, Harcourt notes ‘European situation getting worse tonight.’

Harcourt’s political journal features in the Bodleian Libraries exhibition The Great War: From Downing Street to the Trenches.

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 1).

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 2).

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 3).

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 4).

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 5).

Entry for 29 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 6).

Harcourt records a meeting of Asquith’s Cabinet held at the House of Commons at 5:30pm. The Cabinet first discussed the situation in Ireland before turning its attention to the ‘Austro-Servian crisis.’ Harcourt describes an ‘inconceivable’ German proposal put to Winston Churchill by the German businessman Albert Ballin seeking British neutrality in any prospective German action against France.

Harcourt remains firmly committed to British abstention from any war on a ‘Servian issue’ and is working to form a peace party ‘which if necessary shall break up the Cabinet.’ He contrasts the attitude of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, who is working hard for peace, with the ‘belligerent’ David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He has heard reports that the first shots were fired by Serbia on Austria earlier that afternoon.

Harcourt’s political journal features in the Bodleian Libraries exhibition The Great War: From Downing Street to the Trenches.

Entry for 27 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 1).

Entry for 27 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 2).

Having missed the previous day’s cabinet, Lewis Harcourt, Colonial Secretary, motored over from Nuneham Courtenay to the nearby home of his friend the Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith. The chief topic of their private meeting was the break down of the Buckingham Palace conference called to discuss the Irish Home Rule crisis, the most pressing concern facing the government in the Summer of 1914.

Their discussions briefly turned to the ‘probable Austro-Servian war’. Harcourt was adamant that ‘under no circ[umstance]s’ would he be a party to British participation in a European war. Harcourt’s biggest concern was the attitude of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, whom he believed capable of precipitating naval action without reference to his Cabinet colleagues. Asquith ‘pooh poohed’ Harcourt’s concerns.

Harcourt’s political journal features in the Bodleian Libraries exhibition The Great War: From Downing Street to the Trenches.

Entry for 26 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 1).

Entry for 26 July 1914 from the political journal of Lewis Harcourt (page 2).

In July 1914 there was no certainty that Britain would become entangled in the ‘Austro-Servian War’ which emerged from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June. The Liberal government in London was deeply divided over Britain’s possible role in a European conflict. A major new source for the deliberations that took place in H.H. Asquith’s Cabinet in the Summer of 1914 is Lewis Harcourt’s political journal. Harcourt, who was Colonial Secretary, sat next to Asquith at the Cabinet table. He maintained a record of proceedings despite being warned more than once by his colleagues not to do so. No official Cabinet diary was kept until David Lloyd George began the practice in December 1916.

Monogram on Lewis Harcourt’s ministerial trunk in which his political journal was housed before it was acquired by the Bodleian Library.

To mark the centenary of British intervention in the First World War on 4 August 1914, we shall be posting entries from Harcourt’s journal on this blog from 26 July to 4 August. The journal traces the slide into war, and captures the changing opinions of individuals and groupings of ministers both for and against intervention.

Harcourt’s journal features in the Bodleian Libraries exhibition The Great War: Personal Stories from Downing Street to the Trenches.

Over the next few months we will experience something really quite extraordinary. This is because we can now start to premise select sentences about the First World War with ’100 years today…’ On the 28th June we commemorated the centenary anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and on the 28th of the following month we were able to do the same for the outbreak of the conflict itself. And there will be many more of these poignant reminders. On August 4th we remember probably one of the most pivotal moments in UK history: the British declaration of war. There are many ways you can commemorate this event in Oxford but one such illuminating choice is to watch ‘A Night at the Cinema in 1914’: a special compilation of archival footage from the British Film Institute (BFI) which seeks to recreate a typical night out in 1914. This excellent film is coming to the Phoenix Picture House in Oxford on the night of the 4th August and will showcase a memorable miscellany of comedies, dramas, travelogues and newsreels including:

• a comic short about a face-pulling competition
• a sensational episode of The Perils of Pauline
• scenes of Allied troops celebrating Christmas at the Front and…
• an early sighting of one of cinema’s greatest icons.

Take yourself back to a hundred years ago and see where the world of film all began. See the trailer here and keep an eye on the Phoenix Picture House website for the latest information.

From the British Film Institute National Archive

JISC have funded King’s College London to develop a new online resource UK World War One Collections Database.  This resource allows researchers and content managers to search for UK university, archive, library and museum holdings relating to the conflict, saving them time and potentially reducing duplication of effort.

A First World War Roadshow event will be held at Banbury Museum on Saturday November 3^rd 2012.  Members of the public are invited to bring their documents, artefacts and stories from the First World War to be added to the Europeana 1914-1918 online archive.

Visitors at Roadshow in Dublin ready to share their story.

Project staff from the University of Oxford and Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum will be on hand to digitise and talk about the objects and add these and the stories to the website. Subject experts and representatives from historical associations and societies will be present to help people learn more about their objects and family history.

The stories and digital versions of the objects will be available for people across the world to enjoy via the Europeana 1914-1918 website, while the items themselves remain with their owners.

When: Saturday 3rd November 2012. 10-4.30
Where: Banbury Museum, Spiceball Park Road, Banbury OX16 2PQ http://www.cherwell.gov.uk/museum/

The First World War stretched across countries and over continents. It involved not only those at the front but also people at home and elsewhere. Only a fraction of the stories, objects and memories that remain after the war are widely available or even known. There are stories that have never been told beyond the family, and objects that are kept in people’s homes: letters, photos, diaries, souvenirs, and other items that tell a story about the war and those who were affected. The Europeana 1914-1918 project is now working to collect these unknown memories and objects and make them available online for the world to see and share.

About the Europeana 1914-1918 project

The Europeana 1914-1918 project invites anyone who has a story or object relating to the time of the First World War to share it. At the Europeana 1914-1918 website (http://europeana1914-1918.eu/), people can record their stories and upload digital versions of any objects they hold.  A series of Roadshow events are held across Europe to assist people with the digitisation and sharing of their stories.

Europeana 1914-1918 is based on an initiative at the University of Oxford where people across Britain were asked to share their family letters, photographs and keepsakes from the war. The success of the idea – which became the Great War Archive – encouraged Europeana, Europe’s digital archive, library and museum, to bring other national or local institutions across Europe into an alliance with Oxford University.

Available for everyone to explore

The Europeana 1914-1918 online collection is constantly growing. Every item in the collection originates from, or relates to, someone’s experience of the First World War, either abroad or at home. The material can be explored at http://europeana1914-1918.eu/.

Do you teach the First World War in any discipline at at Further or Higher education level? On Thursday 6th September we will be running a workshop to introduce a new digital project with resources for teaching: World War I Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings. 

World War I Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings brings together a range of innovative digital resources intended to reappraise the War in its historical, cultural, social and geographical contexts. The resources include digitised primary sources, e-books, images, interactive maps and simulations, and are organised into cross-disciplinary themes such as medicine, politics, and the topography of the War. At the heart of the site is a showcase of new academic perspectives on the War by leading scholars, presented in blog format so that readers can contribute comments of their own.

A distinctive feature of the resources and commentaries is that they have been licensed as open educational resources, so that they can be used, with or without adaptation, for teaching and learning in both formal and informal contexts.

The website has been developed by the team at the University of Oxford responsible for the acclaimed First World War Poetry Digital Archive and Great War Archive (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/) and funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) World War One Commemoration Programmes (http://jiscww1.jiscinvolve.org/wp/).

The workshop will explore the usefulness and relevance of the thematic collections for teaching and studying topics related to World War I . It will begin with an introduction to the thematic collections and academic commentaries. You will then investigate the collections yourself, select resources that might enhance your students’ learning and plan how you might use them. Members of the project team will be on hand to help out, and there will be ample opportunity for feedback and discussion.

Your contribution will help us not only to assess the value of the collections in encouraging students to consider different ways of approaching the War, but also to extend our understanding of how academic staff engage with open educational resources.

The workshop will take place at the University of Oxford IT Services, from 10.00am to 4pm on the 6th September 2012. Coffee and lunch will be provided, and reasonable travel expenses will be reimbursed for participants from outside Oxford. Places are limited. Please contact ww1centenary@oucs.ox.ac.uk if you are interested in attending.