GERMANY DRAWS THE SWORD WAR DECLARED ON RUSSIA. LUXEMBURG INVADED. BRITISH STEAMERS SEIZED. SOUTHPORT MAN: W H Thomas 19th JANUARY First airborne attack on British soil. Zeppelins bomb Great Yarmouth.
15TH - 25TH MAY Battle of Festubert - almost 16,000 British men were injured.
22nd JANUARY 2nd Battle of Ypres - Germany uses poison gas for the first time.
ON SEFTON The men of the 7th KLR gave a stirring account of themselves at the charge of Richbourg St.Vaast, part of the Battle of Festebert. Casualties were high, one Southport paper reported 49 killed or wounded from the Town.
APRIL - DECEMBER Gallipoli Campaign. 7th MAY Sinking of the Lusitania.
28th JUNE Assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
death of 150 men. These men are amongst the first casualties of the war.
28th JULY Austria-Hungary declare war on Serbia.
ON SEFTON Southport’s volunteer league has a register of 850 members by September 1914.
29th JULY German Patrols cross into France. Britain warns Germany that it can't remain neutral. 1st AUGUST Germany declare war on Russia. 3rd AUGUST Germany declare war on France. Britain gives order for troops to mobilise. German troops invade Belgium. 4th AUGUST Britain declares war on Germany. Royal Navy cruiser HMS Amphion is sunk by German Mines, causing the
A Southport man was amongst the first to be killed in World War One: Stoker W H Thomas, a second class stoker on the Amphion. He was 20 years old, the only son of Henry and Louisa Thomas.
regiments against the invading German forces, and took part in the control retreat. The KLR had recruitment centres across Sefton. SEPTEMBER First Battle of Marne - 13,000 British casualties are recorded.
ON SEFTON The Lusitania was sunk off the coast of Ireland by German submarine ‘U-20’ on 7th May 1915, with the loss of 1,198 passengers and crew, including James Marshall a saloon waiter from Formby, who went down with the ship.
25th SEPTEMBER Battle of Loos.
The KLR led the charge which resulted in two German trenches being over run.
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
29th OCTOBER Turkey enters the war. OCTOBER/NOVEMEBER First battle of Ypres.
‘Your King and Country Need You’ slogan is published. 100,000 men enlist within 2 weeks. 23rd AUGUST Battle of Mons - the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force. ON SEFTON The King's (Liverpool) Regiment (KLR) fought alongside other British
“60,000 men were killed, injured or reported missing in one day of action“.