One Hundred years ago.

At 11pm this evening here in the UK it is 100 years to the hour since the Great War came to the country. It had started the day before with Germany declaring war on France. It took a further 24 hours for the British diplomatic implications to entangle us, as our commitments to countries various fell and folded-in towards an inevitable, epoch-changing catastrophe.

A century later there is an initiative to light a candle at 10 and leave it awhile, to be extinguished by 11. This is because in that hour a hundred years ago (also a Monday) , Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, well knowing the diplomatic unravelling to come  allegedly said the following "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time"

The picture for tonight's post is my Grandpa (my Mum's Dad) who took an active part in WW1 and in particular on The Somme on its first day and his 21st birthday. I knew him until I was about 12. Candle on the go here, next to this picture in its frame.