On August 3, 1914, the British Government practically gave up hope that war with Germany could be avoided, though it would appear to have lingered until the ultimatum to Germany to vacate Belgian soil remained unanswered.  On that day the army was mobilized at Aldershot.

On August 5, 1914, Lord Kitchener was recalled at the outset from a journey to Egypt, and appointed Minister of War.  No more fortunate selection than this could have been made.  Above all else, Lord Kitchener’s reputation had been won as an able transport officer.  In the emergency, as Minister of War, the responsibility for the transport of a British army oversea rested in his hands.  On August 5, 1914, the House of Commons voted a credit of $100,000,000, and an increase of 500,000 men to the regular forces.  Upon the same day preparations went forward for the dispatch of an expeditionary army to France.

The decision to send the army to France, instead of direct to a landing in Belgium, would seem to have been in response to an urgent French entreaty that Great Britain mark visibly on French soil her unity with that nation at the supreme crisis.  For some days previously British reluctance to enter the war while a gleam of hope remained to confine, if not prevent, the European conflagration, had created a feeling of disappointment in France.

The British expeditionary army consisted at first—­that is previous to the Battle of the Marne—­of two and a half army corps, or five divisions, thus distributed:  First Corps, Sir Douglas Haig; Second Corps, General Smith-Dorien; Fourth Division of the Third Corps, General Pulteney.  The Sixth Division of the Third Corps and the Fourth Corps under General Rawlinson were not sent to France till after the end of September, 1914.  It contained besides about one division and a half of cavalry under General Allenby.  A British division varies from 12,000 to 15,000 men (three infantry brigades of four regiments each; three groups of artillery, each having three batteries of six pieces; two companies of sappers, and one regiment of cavalry).  The force totaled some 75,000 men, with 259 guns.  The whole was placed under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French, with Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Murray, Chief of Staff.

Field Marshal French was sixty-two and was two years younger than Lord Kitchener.  His responsibilities were great, how great no one at the beginning of the war realized his capabilities for the developing scope of the task untried, but as a serious and courageous officer he fully merited the honors he had already won.