Reporting the First World War
Charles Repington, The Times and the Great War

Major study of the influential military correspondent, Charles Repington, and his daily column in The Times during the Great War.

A. J. A. Morris (Author)

9781107512856, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 November 2017

411 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.62 kg

'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

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.

Introduction
Part I. The Years of Preparation, 1903–1914: 1. A new profession
2. Kitchener's champion
3. Esher's War Office reforms
4. Arnold Forster lays the foundation for the General Staff
5. Anglo-French military conversations
6. Finding suitable generals
7. Invasion
8. Repington helps Haldane
9. Conscription
10. Northcliffe and The Times, Repington and the Army Review
11. The Curragh incident
12. Are the army and navy prepared for war?
Part II. The War Years, 1914–1918: 13. The 1915 shells scandal
14. How do we secure the necessary troops?
15. Changing the Old Guard
16. The Somme
17. Repington leaves The Times
18. At odds with DORA
19. Repington discredited
20. A consummation devoutly to be wished
Part III. After the War, 1918–1925: 21. Peace poses its own problems, 1918–1920
22. Last post, 1920–1925
23. A fractured reputation
Biographical notes
Source notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: First World War [HBWN], Military history [HBW], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]