Reporting the First World War: Charles Repington, <I>The Times</I> and the Great War

A. J. A. Morris

doi:10.1017/CBO9781316226599

Charles Repington was Britain's most influential military correspondent during the first two decades of the twentieth century. From 1914 to 1918, Repington's commentary in The Times, 'The War Day by Day', was read and discussed by opinion-shapers and decision-makers worldwide who sought to better understand the momentous events happening around them, and his subsequently published diaries offered a compelling portrait of England's governing class at war. This is the first major study of Repington's life and career from the Boer War to the end of the Great War. A. J. A. Morris presents unique insights into the conduct of the First World War and into leading figures in the British high command: French, Haig, Robertson, Wilson. The book offers modern readers a rewardingly fresh understanding of the conflict, and will appeal to scholars of the First World War and British political and military history of the period.

‘This is a wonderfully well-informed account of Charles à Court Repington, the most important British military journalist of the early twentieth century and an unmatched observer of wartime military life and high politics. A. J. A. Morris’s treatment of Repington is very good indeed, and adds a finely nuanced perspective to our understanding of the British experience of 1914–18, in particular the extraordinary military and political intrigues of those years.’

Keith Jeffery - Queen's University Belfast

‘If the name of Colonel Repington figures at all in recent histories of the First World War … it is as a journalistic gadfly whose attempts to influence British strategic policy were as irresponsible as they were ill-informed. This image Professor Morris has now finally laid to rest in this carefully documented and detailed study of Repington’s entire career … From it, Repington emerges as one of the leading military thinkers of his generation who was immensely influential in the reforms of the British Army before the war as well as one of the best-informed and most sought-after observers of its conduct. His political, social and journalistic as well as military connections make his diaries a fascinating record of Edwardian society in its decline. It is a book that adds greatly to our understanding of the way in which Britain was governed during one of the greatest crises in our history.’

Michael Howard - University of Oxford

References

Select bibliography

A short, select list of books, suggested for further reading and arranged by subject. Many contain bibliographies. Unless otherwise indicated, the place of publication is London, and works by Repington are listed in date order.

Publications by Charles à Court Repington

The War in the Far East (1905)

Imperial Strategy (1906)

Peace Strategy (1907)

The Foundations of Reform (1908)

The Future of Army Organization (1909)

Essays and Criticisms (1911)

Vestigia: Reminiscences of Peace and War (1919)

The First World War, 1914–1918: Personal Experiences (two vols., 1920)

After the War: A Diary (1922)

The Life and Death of Marie Stuart (Edinburgh, 1923)

Policy and Arms (1924)

Studies of Repington

Morris, A. J. A. ‘Repington, Charles à Court (1858–1925)’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlvi (Oxford, 2004)

Morris, A. J. A. (ed.). The Letters of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles à Court Repington CMG, Army Records Society, vol. xv (Stroud, 1999)

Repington, Mary. Thanks for the Memory (1938)

Ryan, W. Michael. ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Charles à Court Repington: A Study in the Interaction of Personality, the Press and Power’. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1976

Ryan, W. Michael. Lieutenant–Colonel Charles à Court Repington (New York, 1987)

The press – history

Blumenfeld, R. D. The Press in my Time (1933)

Koss, S. E. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain: The Twentieth Century, 2 vols., The Nineteenth Century and The Twentieth Century (1981 and 1984)

Lee, A. J. The Origins of the Popular Press 1855–1914 (1976)

P. H. S. The History of The Times, volume iii, The Twentieth-Century Test, 1884–1912 (1947), and volume iv, part 1,The 150th Anniversary and Beyond, 1912–1920 (1952)

Newspaper proprietors, editors and journalists

Ayerst, D. Garvin of the ‘Observer’ (1985)

Fritzinger, L. B. Diplomat without Portfolio: Valentine Chirol, his Life and ‘The Times’ (2006)

Fyfe, Hamilton H. Sixty Years of Fleet Street (1949)

Gibbs, Philip A. H. The Pageant of the Years (1946)

Gollin, A. M. ‘The Observer’ and J. L. Garvin, 1908–14 (1960)

Harris, Wilson. J. A. Spender (1946)

Steed, H. W. Through Thirty Years, 1892–1922: A Personal Narrative, 2 vols. (1924)

Thompson, J. Lee. Lord Northcliffe and the Great War (Kent, OH, 1999)

Thompson, J. Lee Northcliffe: Press Baron in Politics, 1865–1922 (2000)

Wilson, K. (ed.). The Rasp of War (1988)

Wrench, J. E. Geoffrey Dawson and our Times (1973)

Foreign policy issues

Hale, O. J. Publicity and Diplomacy, 1890–1914 (New York, 1940)

Hinsley, F. H. (ed.). British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey (Cambridge, 1963)

Howard, G. H. D. Splendid Isolation (1967)

Kennan, George F. The Fateful Alliance (New York, 1984)

Kennedy, Paul. The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914 (1980)

Monger, G. W. The End of Isolation (Edinburgh, 1963)

Steiner, Zara. Britain and the Origins of the First World War (1977)

Naval officers and naval issues

Bennett, G. Charlie B (1968)

Lord Beresford, Charles. The Betrayal (1912)

Chatfield, Lord. The Navy and Defence (1942)

Clarke, G. S. and Thursfield, J. The Navy and the Nation (1897)

Graham, G. S. The Politics of Naval Supremacy (Cambridge, 1965)

Herwig, Holger H. Luxury Fleet: The Imperial German Navy, 1888–1918 (1980)

Mackay, Rudock. Fisher of Kilverstone (Oxford, 1973)

Marder, Arthur (ed.). Fear God and Dread Nought: The Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone, 3 vols. (1952–59)

Marder, Arthur (ed.). From Dreadnought to Scapa Flow 1904–19, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1961–70)

Pudeston, W. D. Mahan (1939)

Roskill, Stephen. Earl Beatty (1980)

Steinberg, Jonathan. Yesterday’s Deterrent (1965)

Woodward, E. L. Great Britain and the German Navy (Oxford, 1935)

Soldiers and military/political issues

Adams, R. J. Q. and Poirier, P. P. The Conscription Controversy in Great Britain, 1900–18 (1987)

Beckett, Ian F. W. The Army and the Curragh Incident 1914, Army Records Society (Stroud, 1986)

Beckett, Ian and Simpson, Keith (eds.). A Nation in Arms (Manchester, 1985)

Bond, Brian. The Victorian Army and the Staff College (1972)

Bond, Brian. Liddell Hart, 2 vols. (1977)

Bond, Brian (ed.). The First World War and British Military History (Oxford, 1991)

Bond, Brian et al., Look to your Front: Studies in the First World War by the British Commission for Military History (Staplehurst, 1999)

Callwell, C. E. Stray Recollections, 2 vols. (1923)

Cassar, George H. Kitchener’s War: British Strategy from 1914 to 1916 (Washington, DC, 2004)

Cassar, George H. The Tragedy of Sir John French (Newark, DE, 1985)

Dockrill, Michael and French, David (eds.). British Policy During the First World War (1996)

Dunlop, J. K. The Development of the British Army 1899–1914 (1938)

French, David. British Economic and Strategic Planning 1905–15 (1982)

French, David. British Strategy and War Aims 1914–1916 (1986)

Gooch, John. The Plans of War: The General Staff and British Military Strategy (1974)

Gooch, John. The Prospect of War (1981)

Guinn, Paul. British Strategy and Politics, 1914–1918 (Oxford, 1965)

Hamer, W. S. The British Army: Civil–Military Relations 1889–1905 (Oxford, 1970)

Harris, J. P. Douglas Haig and the First World War Cambridge, 2008)

Holmes, Richard. The Little Field Marshal: A Life of Sir John French (1981)

Howard, Michael. The Continental Commitment (1972)

Jeffery, Keith. Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier (Oxford, 2006)

Keegan, John. The Mask of Command (1987)

Paul, Kennedy (ed.). The War Plans of the Great Powers, 1880–1914 (1979)

Lee, John. A Soldier’s Life: General Sir Ian Hamilton, 1853–1947 (2000)

Luvaas, Jay. The Education of an Army (1965)

Maurice, Nancy (ed.). The Maurice Case (Barnsley, 1972)

Mead, Gary. The Good Soldier: The Biography of Douglas Haig (2007)

Ombrain, Nicholas d’. War Machinery and High Policy, 1902–1914 (Oxford, 1973)

Philpott, William. Anglo-French Relations and Strategy on the Western Front 1914–1918 (1996)

Philpott, William. Bloody Victory: The Sacrifice on the Somme (2009)

Sheffield, Gary. Forgotten Victory: The First World War, Myths and Realities (2001)

Sheffield, Gary and Bourne, John (eds.). Douglas Haig: War Diaries and Letters 1914–18 (2005)

Simkins, Peter. Kitchener’s Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–16 (Manchester, 1988)

Spiers, Edward M. The Late Victorian Army, 1868–1902 (Manchester, 1992)

Strachan, Huw. The Politics of the British Army (Oxford, 1997)

Williams, Rhodri. Defending the Empire: The Conservative Party and British Defence Policy, 1899–1915 (New Haven, CN, 1991)

Williamson, S. R. Jnr. The Politics of Grand Strategy (Cambridge, MA, 1969)

Wilson, Trevor. The Myriad Faces of War (Cambridge, 1988)

Woodward, D. R. Lloyd George and the Generals (Newark, DE, 1983)

Politicians and other panjandra

Amery, Leo S. My Political Life, 3 vols. (1953)

Arnold-Forster, H. O. Military Needs and Military Policy (1908)

Asquith, Cynthia. Diaries 1915–18 (1968)

Asquith, Herbert Henry. The Genesis of the War (1923)

Balfour, Michael. The Kaiser and his Times (1964)

Beckett, Ian and Gooch, John (eds.). Politicians and Defence (Manchester, 1981)

Blake, R. Andrew Bonar Law: The Unknown Prime Minister (1955)

Bonham-Carter, Violet. Winston Churchill as I knew him (1965)

Brock, M. G. and Brock, E. (eds.). H. H. Asquith: Letters to Venetia Stanley (Oxford, 1982)

Fraser, Peter. Lord Esher: A Political Biography (1973)

Gollin, A. M. Proconsul in Politics (1964)

Grigg, John. Life of Lloyd George, volumes ii–iv (1978–2002)

Hankey, Lord. The Supreme Command, 2 vols. (1961)

Koss, Stephen E. Asquith (1976)

Koss, Stephen E. Lord Haldane: Scapegoat for Liberalism (New York, 1969)

Lewis, Geoffrey. Carson: The Man who Divided Ireland (Hambledon, 2005)

Mackay, Rudock. Balfour: Intellectual Statesman (Oxford, 1985)

Nicholls, David. The Lost Prime Minister: A Life of Sir Charles Dilke (Hambledon, 1995)

Robbins, Keith. Sir Edward Grey: A Biography of Lord Grey of Fallodon (1971)

Ronaldshay, Earl of. The Life of Lord Curzon, 3 vols. (1928)

Roskill, Stephen. Hankey: Man of Secrets, 2 vols. (1970)

Spiers, Edward M. Haldane: An Army Reformer (Edinburgh, 1981)

Finally, a short, extremely useful and convenient work of reference for the 1914–18 war together with a concise guide to further reading:

Bourne, J. M. Who’s Who in World War One (2001)

Reporting the First World War

Charles Repington, The Times and the Great War

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Contents

Select bibliography

Publications by Charles à Court Repington

Studies of Repington

The press – history

Newspaper proprietors, editors and journalists

Foreign policy issues

Naval officers and naval issues

Soldiers and military/political issues

Politicians and other panjandra

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