The War Illustrated

Painting from The War Illustrated of a battle in 1914 Belgium
“The Story Of The Great European War Told By Camera, Pen And Pencil” was the subtitle of The War Illustrated, a magazine published in London publication by William Berry (later owner of The Daily Telegraph). The first issue date was August 22, 1914, eighteen days after the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The magazine continued until 1919, with a peak circulation of 750,000 (and was revived in 1939 during the Second World War).

The issues were later packaged into books (all online at the Internet Archive: see list below). “Volume I. The First Phase” featured articles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (“How the Boer War Prepared Us for the Great War”) and H. G. Wells:

The cause of a war and the object of a war are not necessarily the same. The cause of this war is the invasion of Luxemburg and Belgium. We declared war because we were bound by treaty to declare war. We have been pledged to protect the integrity of Belgium since the kingdom of Belgium has existed. If the Germans had not broken the guarantees they shared with us to respect the neutrality of these little States we should certainly not be at war at the present time.
—H. G. Wells, “Why Britain Went to War”, The War Illustrated: Volume I

Also see from The War Illustrated Deluxe volume II, H. G. Wells “Will The War Change England?”.

The War Illustrated at the Internet Archive:

  1. Vol 1
  2. Vol 2
  3. Vol 3
  4. Vol 4
  5. Vol 5
  6. Vol 6
  7. Vol 7
  8. Vol 8
  9. Vol 9
  10. Vol 10

  3 comments for “The War Illustrated

  1. Mike Shuster
    at

    Great addition Barrett. Great find. Thanks so much.

  2. David Norton
    at

    “The first issue date was August 22, 1914, eighteen days **before** the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. ”

    Uh, shouldn’t this be AFTER the UK declared war?

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