Brittain, Vera, Diary, 4 August 1914

00000284-5.jpg
Description: 
Diary of Vera Brittain

Tabs

Case Study: 
From Youth to Experience: Vera Brittain’s Work for Peace in Two World Wars
Creator: 
Brittain, Vera
Source: 
diary
Date: 
4 August 1914
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Vera Brittain estate; McMaster University has a non-exclusive licence to publish this document.

Identifier: 
00000284-5
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image
Format: 
jpg
Transcript: 

by the mobilization order up in the window, but it turned out that Mr Heathcote & his motor car were there, with Mrs Heathcote inside driving. He was in his uniform, which looked as if he were going tonight, & was very busy sending telegrams off. Captain Holland, I hear, went yesterday, & no doubt Colonel Rawnsley has gone too. We next went to the station & found there that a last edition extra of the “Chronicle” had been issued but all the copies were sold. However, Smith the foreman, who told us his son had gone to the front, gave us his copy. It contained the thrilling news that Germany has formally declared war on Belgium! This looks like an answer to our ultimatum, & will perhaps free us from the necessity of waiting until midnight for our answer. Stupendous events come so thick & fast after one another that it is impossible to realize to any extent their full import. One feels as if one were dreaming, or reading a chapter out of one of H.G. Wells’ books like “The War of the Worlds.” To me, who have never known the meaning of war, as I can scarcely remember the South African even, it is incredible to think that there can be fighting off the coast of Yorkshire. Mother & I went through the pedlars & found them practically deserted & a very much diminished band. When we returned home Mrs. Kay came in, & told us that her son Tom, Mrs Johnson’s chauffeur, has been told he is required as he belongs to the Army Medical Corps. His wife, who had a baby only last Friday, is terribly excited because he has to leave her, as she only gets about 2/- a day when he is gone, & has three tiny children on her hands. Mrs Kay says she will have to look after them. She thinks all her four sons who are Reservists will have to go abroad as they have all volunteered for foreign service. Luckily she takes it all calmly & philosophically, though she seems to think she will never see them