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Marie Belloc Lowndes (1868-1947) is remembered for her Jack the Ripper novel, The Lodger (1913), which became a Hitchcock movie. She was one of the best known writers of genre fiction in her own day, and was extremely well-connected. She was best friends with the wife of the British PM Asquith, and on the day that war was declared, she was in a unique position. In this excerpt from her memoir, she takes us back to the day that the lamps went out all over Europe, in 1914.
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00:00Today Marie Bella Clowns is mostly remembered for her horror novel, The Lodger, which was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. In her own day, however, she was famous and extremely well-connected. And in 1914, she was close to members of the British government. Now, the outbreak of war, as recalled by Marie Bella Clowns in her memoir, A Passing World.
00:30A Passing World
01:00I recall the winter and spring of 1914 as having been the happiest of the first 18 years of my married life.
01:15From early childhood, I had longed to write stories, and I was now becoming in a modest way established as a novelist.
01:22Although I was working extremely hard, for I was afraid to give up my regular journalistic work, I was leading a most interesting, indeed a delightful life. And on the eve of my 46th birthday, I still felt a young woman.
01:36I went out a great deal, meeting almost all my fellow writers, and I was often at 10 Downing Street, the house of the Prime Minister. In 1914, I had known Margot Asquith, in a real sense, for exactly 20 years.
01:51In 1894, I spent a few years. In 1894, I spent a week in a Scotch country house where she and I were the only unmarried young women.
01:58I became truly fond of Margot, and I was on kindly terms with Mr Asquith, although I had the feeling that his prejudice against Catholicism affected his relationship with me, this in spite of the fact that he was always a kind, courteous, and indeed a delightful host.
02:14I became, and remained, warmly attached to his and Margot's only daughter, Elizabeth, later Princess Antoine Bebesco.
02:25I have known a considerable number of highly intelligent and charming English girls.
02:30Elizabeth Asquith stands out in my memory as the most attractive of them all.
02:35She also had a kind and generous nature, as well as what used to be called a good mind.
02:40During the spring and early summer of 1914, I was also constantly in the London house of Margot Asquith's brother and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Glen Connor.
02:51Their house in Queen Anne's Gate was a few moments' walk from the Foreign Office, and Sir Edward Grey, who was becoming acutely anxious as to the state of Europe, dined with them almost every night,
03:02going back to the Foreign Office, after dinner, to read the cables which were then a-revving from every European capital all night as well as all day.
03:11I remember every whacking hour of the week preceding the
03:13Declaration of War in the August of 1914.
03:17I learned of the letter sent to Mr Asquith on the Sunday by the Conservative group, almost before anyone else did so,
03:24and I recollect being told that its dispatch had been a great relief to Edward Grey.
03:28It may be recalled that certain members of the British Cabinet believed England could keep out of the new Franco-German War.
03:36Two things have remained in my mind concerning those summer weeks of 1914.
03:41The first was coming out of the hospital at six o'clock one evening, and seeing on the newspaper placards the news of the fall of Namur.
03:49I realised with a sensation of anguish what this would mean to France.
03:54The second thing I remember was the sudden arrival at the hospital of certain of the soldiers who had fought at Mons,
04:01those who will live in English history as the old contemptibles.
04:04The Germans have an expression which means joy in another's pain.
04:09I have only once felt that despicable feeling.
04:11I felt it, coupled with a certain bitter amusement,
04:15when I became aware that the nurses who had looked forward so eagerly to the coming of the wounded,
04:19that they had done everything in their power, and that power was considerable.
04:24To stay the influx of ordinary patients were having a most unpleasant time with the gallant survivors of the British Expeditionary Force.
04:32These men were naturally all regulars, and to me they recalled the most famous of Kipling's characters.
04:37They were full of cheer, full of courage, and regarded the war as being as good as one.
04:43Splendid fighters, they had already proved themselves,
04:46but they were very different to what the nurses had expected them to be,
04:50and with these patients it proved impossible to keep up the ordinary hospital discipline.
04:54They insisted on smoking in bed,
04:56and their relations and friends brought them bottles of gin and whisky,
04:59cleverly concealed about their persons.
05:01Well do I remember.
05:02When the King and Queen visited the hospital for the first time after the beginning of the war,
05:07going into a stifled fit of real hysterical laughter,
05:11a thing which had only happened to me twice in my life,
05:14when I overheard one of the sisters telling the Queen how much they all enjoyed nursing these heroes.
05:20During the summer of 1914, I led a strange, and in a sense a most unnatural, life.
05:26I arrived at the hospital at nine o'clock each morning,
05:29and I stayed till six bringing sandwiches for my lunch.
05:32I also kept there everything necessary to make an early afternoon cup of tea.
05:38Meanwhile my son went on suffering from acute pains in his head,
05:41and there was still nothing to show what was the matter with him.
05:45Two of my women friends came to see us at St Thomas's,
05:48and each told me long afterwards that she had felt there was no hope of Charles Lowndes leaving the hospital alive.
05:54But I, on my side, once he was in St Thomas's, believed he would get well.
06:00The war filled my mind to the exclusion of everything else,
06:03yet it never occurred to me that a time could come when he too would be in the fighting line.
06:08And now I come to the strangest part of the story.
06:11The frightful pain in my son's head was finally cured by massage,
06:16administered by a Swedish masseur attached to the hospital.
06:20So at last I was able to take him by road, in a friend's car, to a little holiday house we had at Epsom.
06:26Almost at once he had a serious relapse, but I battled through with it alone,
06:30and eventually he became once more the strong, healthy boy he had been before his illness.
06:35I wrote to a friend,
06:37I have had no change at all this dreadful summer.
06:40I had hoped to go to France for a few days,
06:42for of course all my men relations aged under 45 are fighting,
06:45and I want to see their mothers, sisters and wives.
06:49But Lord Haldane says,
06:50The channel has become very unsafe, as there are German submarines about.
06:55Evening after evening,
06:57as I walked home after having spent the day by my son's bedside,
07:01I told myself that after all it was well that the stillborn child,
07:04whose loss I had so bitterly mourned,
07:06had not lived to take his place among the youths whose leaving for Flanders now rent my heart.
07:11Now and again, in writing to my mother,
07:14I struck a cheerful note such as,
07:16The Rothschilds say it must end next winter,
07:19as Germany will then be bankrupt.
07:22And again,
07:23the news looks really good this week,
07:24because people expect the Russians to be in Silesia before Christmas,
07:28and that this will be the beginning of the end.
07:31As to possible raids,
07:32who can tell?
07:33Hilaire thinks a descent on the coast unlikely,
07:36though possible.
07:37A little later I wrote,
07:39I don't believe in either zeps or an invasion.
07:42I did believe zeppelins might come over London till I learned they are very fragile.
07:47The Germans have not yet ventured to send a zeppelin over France.
07:50But I can't help being impressed by the preparations which are now being made
07:54with a view to their coming over London.
07:57I did not add that I had been told by a member of the government
08:00that it was thought that if they did come,
08:02there would be 10,000 casualties.
08:05I did, however, write,
08:07little thinking of what was going to happen 26 years later.
08:10I have been told by a man concerned with our defences
08:13that they can do very little damage.
08:15And the next day,
08:17I had a long talk with Sir Edward Grey last night.
08:20He seemed fairly cheerful,
08:22and he is quite convinced in his quiet way
08:24that England will win through.
08:26But he said the fighting is very fierce,
08:28and I could see he felt very anxious about his nephew.
08:32Some of my friends were becoming extremely worried
08:34as their dividends were being passed.
08:37That anxiety was spared my husband and myself,
08:40both then and during the rest of our married life.
08:42We had no capital, and we were never able to save.
08:47But I did not allow this fact to disturb me unduly.
08:51What troubled me as time went on were the rising prices.
08:54I became very uneasy, and I wrote,
08:57The war is costing £10 a second now,
08:59and will soon cost £20 a second.
09:02Everything in the way of necessities is going up by leaps and bounds.
09:05I feel rather worried about this.
09:08As a matter of fact, I was acutely anxious,
09:10as all my journalistic work had stopped.
09:14Few of the people I knew left London during the first months of a war
09:17which was to last four years,
09:18and I went out almost every evening,
09:21while my husband was at the Times office,
09:23to see my friends and acquaintances.
09:26What was happening in Flanders
09:27filled everyone's mind to the exclusion of all else.
09:30And very soon,
09:32long lists of casualties were being published in every newspaper.
09:35Yet there were times,
09:37during that strange summer and autumn of 1914,
09:41when it appeared to me
09:42as if I alone realised what war meant.
09:45Most of my childhood and girlhood in France
09:48had been overshadowed by the memories of those about me
09:50concerning what had happened there during 1870-1871,
09:55thus not only war,
09:56but war with Germany,
09:58was to me a frightful reality.
10:00With the exception of a few British and French officers,
10:04and the German High Command,
10:06I think it may be said with truth
10:07that no one in Europe had any conception
10:09of what modern warfare would be like.
10:12This, however,
10:13was not true of a certain General Grierson.
10:16Not only was he a brilliant soldier,
10:18he was a remarkable man with a fine mind
10:20who had given the whole of his grown-up life
10:22to the study of war.
10:24He was also one of the very few Englishmen
10:26who knew the German army,
10:27for he had been military attaché in Berlin
10:29and spoke German perfectly,
10:31a rare accomplishment
10:32among the British officers of that day.
10:35I was acquainted with a woman
10:37who was a close friend of General Grierson,
10:39and I recall a conversation
10:41during which she told me his views.
10:43He had no illusions as to the might,
10:45power and scientific knowledge
10:47of those commanding the German army.
10:50Those people who even now,
10:51when writing of 1914,
10:53think poorly of Sir John French
10:55may be reminded that Grierson
10:57was the first officer Sir John asked
10:59should be attached to his staff
11:00after the expeditionary force
11:02had left for France.
11:04But in a French train,
11:05while on his way to the front,
11:07General Grierson died
11:08from what was described as a stroke
11:09a few minutes after drinking
11:11a glass of lemonade.
11:13The censorship of all war news
11:14had been put in the hands
11:15of a brilliant young lawyer.
11:17Rightly or wrongly,
11:18he regarded the British public
11:20as apathetic,
11:21and just after the Battle of Mons,
11:23there appeared in a British newspaper
11:24an alarmist account
11:26of the first military operations.
11:28It began with words
11:29which approximated to,
11:31Oh God,
11:32that I should have to reveal
11:33what you are about to read.
11:34Then followed a terrifying description
11:36of the fate which,
11:37according to this correspondent,
11:39had befallen the expeditionary force.
11:42He wrote as though
11:43that force had disintegrated.
11:45This report from an unknown war correspondent,
11:48though it was soon discovered
11:49who he was,
11:50created fierce anger
11:51and surprise
11:52rather than the fear
11:53the writer had hoped
11:54it would induce.
11:56What appeared certain
11:57to those who knew the man
11:58was that he had lost his nerve.
12:00The fact that the article
12:02had been passed by the War Office
12:03deeply shocked a great many people.
12:06As was the case
12:07in the Second World War,
12:08very few men and women
12:09thought it conceivable
12:10their country could be vanquished.
12:13This feeling of confidence
12:14was an immense asset
12:15to the British people,
12:16and proved the truth
12:17of Foch's dictum
12:18that an army is never beaten
12:20until it believes itself to be.
12:22At that time of my life
12:24I had a large circle
12:25of friends and acquaintances,
12:26and I only knew
12:27one person among them,
12:29a woman who had been
12:29brought up in Germany,
12:31who thought it possible
12:32the Allies might lose the war.
12:34Even so,
12:36pathetic and terrible stories
12:37began to seep through.
12:39They were not published
12:40in the newspapers.
12:41They were passed from one to another
12:42by word of mouth.
12:44The death which most impressed me
12:46at the beginning of the war
12:47was that of a man
12:48for whom I had a great liking.
12:50This was General Hubert Hamilton,
12:52who belonged to a famous
12:53Irish military family.
12:55I had often met him
12:56in the house of his sister,
12:57Lady Allendale,
12:59whose first husband,
13:00Sir George Colley,
13:01had perished in the Battle
13:02of Majuba Hill.
13:04I remember how astonished
13:05I felt when I learned
13:06that Hubert Hamilton
13:07and his staff
13:07had been killed
13:08many miles behind the lines
13:10while they were smoking
13:11on the terrace
13:12of a French chateau.
13:14As many of my friends
13:15were older than myself,
13:16almost every married woman
13:17I knew
13:18had one or more sons
13:19already fighting
13:19and I used to open
13:21the times every morning
13:22with a feeling of acute fear
13:23and pain.
13:25During that first summer
13:26of the war
13:27I was amazed
13:27at the confidence
13:28shown by those about me.
13:30Many who should have known better
13:31were certain the war
13:32would only last a short time.
13:34This was so even
13:35after what could truly
13:36be called the tragedy of Mons.
13:39In the First World War,
13:40next to the loss
13:40of my brother's eldest son,
13:42Louis Belloc,
13:42what most distressed me
13:44partly because I regarded it
13:46as a serious loss
13:47to his country
13:47was the death
13:48of Dennis Buxton,
13:50the son of Lord
13:50and Lady Buxton.
13:53The finest strain
13:54of the Society of Friends
13:55ran in his veins
13:56for he was a great,
13:58great nephew
13:58of Elizabeth Fry.
14:00Though under twenty
14:01when he was killed,
14:02Dennis Buxton
14:03had a mature mind
14:04and he had already
14:06mapped out his life
14:07in a way that was
14:07in those days
14:08most unusual.
14:10He and I once
14:10had a discussion
14:11as to his future.
14:13It took place
14:14in the long,
14:14narrow drawing room
14:15of Fort Belvedere
14:16which was then occupied
14:17by his uncle,
14:18Colonel Barring.
14:20Dennis was exceedingly modest
14:21and not apt to speak
14:22of himself
14:23but on that occasion
14:23he told me
14:24he meant to go
14:25into Parliament
14:25and intended to make
14:27politics his career.
14:29As he talked
14:29I felt him to be
14:30very different
14:31from the other youths
14:32with whom I was
14:32at that time
14:33thrown in contact.
14:35His whole being
14:36was absorbed
14:36in the thought
14:37of giving those contemporaries
14:38whose circumstances
14:39and birth
14:39made it difficult
14:40if not impossible
14:41to lead lives
14:43which would be
14:43of value to their country
14:44the chance to do so.
14:48Not only was he
14:49highly intelligent
14:50and cultivated
14:51he also possessed
14:52a delightful gift
14:53of humour.
14:55I often think
14:56of Dennis Buxton
14:57and it is as if
14:58I could see him
14:59standing before me.
15:00I am grieved
15:01that I never saw him
15:02in the country home
15:03he loved so truly.
15:04It was there
15:07in Sussex
15:07twenty miles
15:08from the sea
15:09that I had spent
15:10some happy days
15:10in the summer
15:11of 1914
15:12just before
15:13the outbreak
15:14of war.
15:15Gathered together
15:16were the foreign
15:16members of a committee
15:17which had just met
15:18in London
15:18to consider means
15:19of saving life
15:20at sea
15:21yet within a few weeks
15:22the U-boats
15:23were hard at work
15:23sinking British ships.
15:26During that visit
15:27I had made friends
15:28with the German delegate
15:29he spoke perfect English
15:31though he had never
15:32been to England before.
15:33I recall feeling
15:34grieved that the
15:35French delegate
15:36did not appear
15:37to such advantage
15:38as did the German
15:38for the Frenchman
15:40could not speak
15:40a word of English.
15:42In that same party
15:43was the then
15:44Lord Harcourt.
15:47He was one of the
15:47most cultivated
15:48and agreeable men
15:49I had ever met
15:50and I remember
15:51discussing with him
15:52at some length
15:52the question
15:53of his father's letters.
15:55A dull life
15:56of Sir William Harcourt
15:57had been written
15:58by a man
15:59who had not known him.
16:00I pressed Lord Harcourt
16:02to publish a selection
16:02of Sir William's letters
16:04as I had heard
16:05they were extremely amusing
16:06and full of pungent wit.
16:09They are still unpublished.
16:11I have wondered
16:12since that visit
16:13whether Lord Buxton
16:14who under a quiet
16:15reserved manner
16:16was very shrewd
16:17and had a sound judgment
16:18foresaw even in a dim measure
16:20the coming calamity.
16:22But not one of the members
16:23of the Liberal Party
16:24I was then meeting
16:25in London
16:26not even Mr Asquith
16:27had a suspicion
16:28of Germany's plans.
16:30Their minds
16:31were wholly absorbed
16:32with the troubles
16:32in Ireland
16:33and a possible rebellion
16:34in Ulster.
16:36Although so much of that
16:37to me
16:38memorable House Party
16:39remains clear
16:40in my mind
16:41I have but a vague
16:42recollection
16:43of a great political
16:44meeting in Brighton
16:45at which we were all present.
16:47A brilliant speech
16:48was made by the Prime Minister's
16:50elder daughter
16:50now Lady Violet Bonham Carter
16:52who was one of the finest
16:54political speakers
16:55of that day.
16:56One of the pleasantest traits
16:58in Margot Asquith's character
16:59was her interest
17:00in every kind
17:00of human being.
17:02This was remarkable
17:03at a time when
17:04London society
17:05though far more Catholic
17:06than was Paris society
17:08was even so
17:09composed of sets
17:10and cliques.
17:11To give only one example
17:13the man who stands out
17:14most clearly
17:15in my memory
17:15as having been
17:16perhaps the most interesting
17:17of my fellow guests
17:18in Margot's hospitable house
17:20was Basil Zaharoff.
17:22There were those
17:23who called him
17:23the mystery man
17:25of Europe.
17:26But as a matter of fact
17:27there was nothing
17:28mysterious about him
17:29though I believe
17:30he was of Greek birth
17:32he was to all intents
17:33and purposes
17:34a Frenchman
17:35and had been educated
17:36in France.
17:38Two facts
17:38were certainly true.
17:40The first was that
17:41of his immense wealth.
17:42He was said to have
17:43a finger in every
17:44financial pie
17:45in Europe
17:45and it was believed
17:46that he owned
17:47the majority of the shares
17:48in the casino
17:49at Monte Carlo.
17:51The second fact
17:52was that he had married
17:53a connection
17:53of the Spanish royal family
17:55by whom he had
17:56two daughters.
17:57At the time
17:58of the outbreak
17:59of the First World War
18:00Basil Zaharoff
18:01was hated
18:02in one section
18:03of the London world
18:04the section composed
18:05of the intellectual socialists
18:07headed by the Sydney Webbs.
18:10They all regarded
18:11Zaharoff as a warmonger
18:12owing to the fact
18:13that he had a large share
18:14in the Crusoe armament firm.
18:17When war came
18:18he at once
18:19threw his great wealth
18:20and immense influence
18:21on the side of the Allies.
18:22Although I last saw him
18:24over thirty years ago
18:25and though he had a quiet
18:27and what the French
18:27call an effaced personality
18:29I remember
18:30Basil Zaharoff
18:31very clearly.
18:32This is partly because
18:33although he spoke English well
18:35he was more at home
18:36in French
18:36so I was generally
18:37put next to him
18:38both at 10 Downing Street
18:39and in the house
18:40of the Reginald McKennas.
18:42No man of his day
18:43can have had a shrewder notion
18:45of the part money plays
18:46or can play
18:46in life.
18:48He was believed
18:49to be the richest man
18:50in Europe
18:50and he gave huge
18:52anonymous gifts
18:52not only to the
18:53British Red Cross
18:54but to every kind
18:55of war charity.
18:58There were certain
18:58members of the government
18:59who regarded him
19:00with deep suspicion.
19:02This suspicion
19:02was increased
19:03when the following story
19:04became known.
19:05A girl in the political world
19:07was engaged
19:08to be married.
19:10Basil Zaharoff
19:11sent her a bouquet
19:11and when she opened
19:13the envelope
19:13which contained
19:14the name of the donor
19:15she found
19:16in addition to his card
19:17a thousand pounds
19:19in notes.
19:21Sir Basil was much
19:21courted in government circles
19:23for it was thought
19:24he was in a position
19:25to swing Greece
19:26to the side of the Allies.
19:28He was certainly
19:29strongly pro-Ali
19:30and deserved the knighthood
19:31of which to my thinking
19:33he was amusingly proud.
19:36When I was in his company
19:38I felt sure
19:38he was a Frenchman.
19:40I also felt sure
19:41of something else.
19:42This was that
19:43every man or woman
19:44in his opinion
19:45had his or her price.
19:47What astonished me
19:48was the way
19:49certain of his
19:50English acquaintances
19:51I cannot call them
19:52his friends
19:52sponged on him.
19:54I recall that
19:55on one occasion
19:56when I was anxious
19:57concerning some
19:57childish ailment
19:58of my younger daughter
19:59he learned the fact
20:01and wrote me
20:01a touching little note.
20:03I regret I did not
20:04keep that note
20:05for he was certainly
20:06one of the outstanding
20:07figures of what was
20:08an extraordinary time
20:09of European history.
20:10piano plays in bright rhythm
20:12piano plays in bright rhythm
20:13You have just heard
20:43a recollection of the outbreak of war in 1914
20:46from A Passing World
20:49by Marie Bella Clowns
20:51We willed it not
21:13Wake up, England
21:16Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
21:22This is HistoryRadio.org
21:35A free educational radio stream
21:37Remembering the First World War
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