10th August 1914 On this day: Lord Kitchener appeals for 100,000 volunteers   Lord Kitchener publishes his first appeal for 100,00 volunteers to form his First New Army. 11th DLI Martin Bashforth Why Britain Went to War by H. G. Wells   The cause of a war and the object of a war are not necessarily the same. The cause of this war is the invasion of Luxemburg and Belgium. We declared war because we were bound by treaty to declare war. We have been pledged to protect the integrity of Belgium since the kingdom of Belgium has existed. If the Germans had not broken the guarantees they shared with us to respect the neutrality of these little States we should certainly not be at war at the present time. The fortified eastern frontier of France could have been held against any attack without any help from us. We had no obligations and no interests there. We were pledged to France simply to protect her from a naval attack by sea, but the Germans had already given us an undertaking not to make such an attack. It was our Belgian treaty and the sudden outrage on Luxemburg that precipitated us into this conflict. No power in the world would have respected our Flag or accepted our national word again if we had not fought. So much for the immediate cause of the war. We had to fight because our honour and our pledge obliged us. But now we come to the object of this war. We began to fight because our honour and our pledge obliged us ; but so soon as we are embarked upon the fighting we have to ask ourselves what is the end at which our fighting aims. We cannot simply put the Germans back over the Belgian border and tell them not to do it again. We find ourselves at war with that huge military empire with which we have been doing our best to keep the peace since first it rose upon the ruins of French Imperialism in 1871. And war is mortal conflict. We have now either to destroy or be destroyed. We have not sought this reckoning, we have done our utmost to avoid it; but now that it has been forced upon us it is imperative that it should be a thorough reckoning. This is a war that touches every man and every home in each of the combatant countries. It is a war, as Mr. Sidney Low has said, not of soldiers but of whole peoples. And it is a war that must be fought to such a finish that every man in each of the nations engaged understands what has happened. There can be no diplomatic settlement that will leave German Imperialism free to explain away its failure to its people and start new preparations. We have to go on until we are absolutely done for, or until the Germans as a people know that they are beaten, and are convinced that they have had enough of war. We are fighting Germany. But we are fighting without any hatred of the German people. We do not intend to destroy either their freedom or their unity. But we have to destroy an evil system of government and the mental and material corruption that has got hold of the German imagination and taken possession of German life. We have to smash the Prussian Imperialism as thoroughly as Germany in 1871 smashed the rotten Imperialism of Napoleon III. And also we have to learn from the failure of that victory to avoid a vindictive triumph. Prussian Imperialism is an intolerable nuisance in the earth. This Prussian Imperialism has been for forty years an intolerable nuisance in the earth. Ever since the crushing of the French in 1871 the evil thing has grown and cast its spreading shadow over Europe. Germany has preached a propaganda of ruthless force and political materialism to the whole uneasy world. "Blood and iron," she boasted, was the cement of her unity, and almost as openly the little, mean, aggressive statesmen and professors who have guided her destinies to this present conflict have professed cynicism and an utter disregard of any ends but nationally selfish ends, as though it were religion. Evil just as much as good may be made into a Cant. Physical and moral brutality has indeed become a cant in the German mind, and spread from Germany throughout the world. I could wish it were possible to say that English and American thought had altogether escaped its corruption. But now at last we shake ourselves free and turn upon this boasting wickedness- to rid the world of it. The whole world is tired of it. And " Gott !" - Gott so perpetually invoked Gott indeed must be very tired of it. A war to exorcise a world-madness and end an age. This is already the vastest war in history. It is war not of nations, but of mankind. It is a war to exorcise a world-madness and end an age. And note how this Cant of public rottenness has had its secret side. The man who preaches cynicism in his own business transactions had better keep a detective and a cash register for his clerks; and it is the most natural thing in the world to find that this system, which is outwardly vile, is also inwardly rotten. Beside the Kaiser stands the firm of Krupp, a second head to the State; on the very steps of the throne is the armament trust, that organised scoundrelism which has, in its relentless propaganda for profit, mined all the security of civilisation, brought up and dominated a Press, ruled a national literature, and corrupted universities. Consider what the Germans have been, and what the Germans can be. Here is a race which has for its chief fault docility and a belief in teachers and rulers. For the rest, as all who know it intimately will testify, it is the most amiable of peoples. It is naturally kindly, comfort-loving, child-loving, musical, artistic, intelligent. In countless respects German homes and towns and countrysides are the most civilised in the world. But these people did a little lose their heads after the victories of the sixties and seventies, and there began a propaganda of national vanity and national ambition. It was organised by a stupidly forceful statesman, it was fostered by folly upon the throne. It was guarded from wholesome criticism by an intolerant censorship. It never gave sanity a chance. A certain patriotic sentimentality lent itself only too readily to the suggestion of the flatterer, and so there grew up this monstrous trade in weapons. German patriotism became an "interest," the greatest of the "interests." It developed a vast advertisement propaganda. It subsidised Navy Leagues and Aerial Leagues, threatening the world. Mankind, we saw too late, had been guilty of an incalculable folly in permitting private men to make a profit out of the dreadful preparations for war. But the evil was started; the German imagination was captured and enslaved. On every other European country that valued its integrity there was thrust the overwhelming necessity to arm and drill and still to arm and drill. Money was withdrawn from education, from social progress, from business enterprise and art and scientific research, and from every kind of happiness; life was drilled and darkened. So that the harvest of this darkness comes now almost as a relief, and it is a grim satisfaction in our discomforts that we can at last look across the roar and torment of battlefields to the possibility of an organised peace. For this is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war it is the last war! England, France, Italy; Belgium, Spain, and all the little countries of Europe, are heartily sick of .war; the Tsar has expressed a passionate hatred of war; the most of Asia is unwarlike; the United States has no illusions about war. And never was war begun so joylessly, and never was war begun with so grim a resolution. In England, France, Belgium, Russia, there is no thought of glory. We know we face unprecedented slaughter and agonies; we know that for neither side will there be easy triumphs or prancing victories. Already, after a brief fortnight in that warring sea of men, there is famine as well as hideous butchery, and soon there must come disease. Can it be otherwise ? We face perhaps the most awful winter that mankind has ever faced. But we English and our allies, who did not seek this catastrophe, face it with anger and determination rather than despair. Through this war we have to march, through pain, through agonies of the spirit worse than pain, through seas of blood and filth. We English have not had things kept from us. We know what war is; we have no delusions. We have read books that tell us of the stench of battlefields, and the nature of wounds, books that Germany suppressed and hid from her people. And we face these horrors to make an end of them. There shall be no more Kaisers, there shall be no more Krupps, we are resolved. That foolery shall end! And not simply the present belligerents must come into the settlement. All America, Italy, China, the Scandinavian powers, must have a voice in the final readjustment, and set their hands to the ultimate guarantees. I do not mean that they need fire a single shot or load a single gun. But they must come in. And in particular to the United States do we look to play a part in that pacification of the world for which our whole nation is working, and for which, by the thousand, men in Belgium are now laying down their lives.  On the move Suffragettes released from prison   The government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison, following negotiations with the leadership of the Women's Social & Political Union. In return for their release, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and to help the war effort. West Yorks Territorials concentrate at Selby   The territorials of the West Yorkshire Regiment arrive at Selby on the 10th of August, the 5th Battalion arriving from York, the 6th Battalion from Bradford, the 7th and 8th Battalions from their base at Carlton Barracks. 4th Yorks move to Newcastle   After 5 days at Northallerton the territorials of the 4th Yorks move Newcastle upon Tyne. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bandl.danby/003aBn1914.html 5th DLI Recruit in Darlington    The front page of the Northern Echo carried a recruitment notice: "An Officer of the 5th Durham Light Infantry will attend at the Drill Hall, Darlington, tonight between seven and nine o'clock to enlist men willing to serve in the above regiment. Only men with four years' service between the ages of 18 and 35 and who are in possession of their discharge certificates can be taken" As part of the recruitment campaign the Darlington Company paraded in the streets of the town this evening. Northern Echo 3rd Bedfords to Landguard Fort   The 3rd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment moved from Bedford to Landguard Fort Fort near Felixstowe for duty with the Harwich Garrison.    The Territorials of the 5th Battalion Welsh Regiment arrived at Hearson Camp, Hearson Mountain, Houghton, Pembroke in South Wales, in mid August from Fort Scoveston. The book ‘Burton Parish’ by H.J Dickman records : "One of the immediate results of the arrival in the parish of soldiers with their demands for Sunday newspapers and shopping facilities, was to signal the end of Traditional Sunday Observance." One of camp huts still survives as Burton village hall. Inspections   2nd Battalion - Royal Irish Regiment Monday, August 10th, 1914 - 1145 Devonport The GOC Brigade - General Beauchamp Doran inspected the battalion. Appendix II The following officers proceeded with the Battalion Wounded 23/8 Lt. Col. St.J. A. Cox in command Wounded 23/8 Major S. E. St. Leger 2nd in command Missing 23/8 Lt. R. E. G. Phillips Adjutant Captain J. Richings Quartermaster Lt. P.J. Whitty Machine Gun Officer Lt. F.H.L. Rushton Transport Officer Lt. A.M.S. Tandy Signalling Officer Missing 23/8 Lt. A. D. Fraser Scout Officer A Company Killed 8/23 Captain W. Mellor Missing 23/ Captain I.B. George Missing 23/8 2nd Lt. J. D. Shine Missing 23/8 2nd Lt. C. F. T. O’B. Ffrench Wounded 23/8 2nd Lt. E. C. Guinness B Company Major E. H. E. Daniell, D.S.O. Lt. F.G. Ferguson Lt. D. P. Laing 2nd Lt. A. R. Newton-King C Company Killed 23/8 Capt. & Battalion Major E. M. Painter-Downes Missing 23/8 Captain J.S. Fitzgerald Missing 26/8 Lt. A.E.B. Anderson Killed 23/8 Lt. C. B. Gibbons D Company Missing 26/8 Captain G. A. Elliott Missing 23/8 Captain the Honorable F. G. A. Forbes Wounded 26/8 Lt. E. M. Phillips 3/Battalion Missing 26/8 2nd Lt. C. G. Magrath Officers of the Battalion who proceeded with special appointments Battalion Major J. Burke Captain H. C. MacDonnell with Royal Flying Corps Lt. H. D. Harvey-Kelly Captain A.R.G. Gordon Staff Captain 8th Infantry Brigade war diaries  Training  On the Move  New Battalion  Mobilisation Complete  Training  Training  Move  Mobilisation  Horses  Training  Peace details  Roll of Officers.  Reorganisation  Imperial Service  On the Move Can you add to this factual information? Do you know the whereabouts of a unit on a particular day? Do you have a copy of an official war diary entry? Details of an an incident? The loss of a ship? A letter, postcard, photo or any other interesting snipts? If your information relates only to an individual, eg. enlistment, award of a medal or death, please use this form: Add a story.

Killed, Wounded, Missing, Prisoner and Patient Reports published this day. This section is under construction.

Want to know more about 10th of August 1914? There are:24 items tagged 10th of August 1914 available in our Library   These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.

Remembering those who died this day, 10th of August 1914. Private Charles Argent. Chatham Btn. Royal Naval Division Read their Story. Gnr. Louis Morrice. 1st Lancashire Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery Read their Story. Add a name to this list.

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