The Night of the Declaration of War, August 4th, 1914

As he waited for Germany’s reply to the British Ultimatum, Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, gazed out of his elegant windows in the Foreign Office and watched the lamplighter going about his business as that fateful long hot summer’s day turned to dusk. It was then he famously remarked: “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time”.