It was the summer of 1914, and in July of that year mother, [my sister] Dorothy (fully established in the teaching profession) and I spent a holiday in Devon, making Plymouth our headquarters […]

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We were due to return home on the Friday [31 July] and, on the previous evening went out for our customary stroll along the Hoe only to find this usually gaily illuminated parade was in darkness and that the band of the Middlesex Regiment, which had been performing there throughout the week, was no longer to be seen or heard. In the small hours of the following morning we were roused from sleep by a bugle call which came from the streets in the surrounding district. This was followed by the excited, high-pitched voices of women and the hasty footsteps of men hurriedly leaving their homes to obey the summons of the bugle for it had sounded the call to mobilise, and, hearing that call, we realised that Britain was on the alert and that war was imminent. 

We left Plymouth next morning, and, after a journey in which we were several times held up, reached Liverpool and home. Two days later Britain declared war on Germany [Tuesday 4 August].