"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time", British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked to a friend on the eve of the United Kingdom's entry into the First World War. First published in Grey's memoirs in 1925, the statement earned wide attention as an accurate perception of the First World War and its geopolitical and cultural consequences.
Grey's memoirs Twenty-Five Years 1892–1916 mention the remark as being made on 3 August 1914:
A friend came to see me on one of the evenings of the last week — he thinks it was on Monday, August 3rd. We were standing at a window of my room in the Foreign Office. It was getting dusk, and the lamps were being lit in the space below on which we were looking. My friend recalls that I remarked on this with the words: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time." [1]
In 1927, John Alfred Spender, editor of the Westminster Gazette until 1922, identified himself as the friend to whom Grey had spoken:
I had two short talks with Grey during the "twelve days." [2] I ran into him on the stairs of the Foreign Office on Saturday, August 1st [...] I saw him again late in the evening at his room at the Foreign Office on Monday, August 3rd, and it was to me he used the words which he has repeated in his book, "The lamps are going out all over Europe, and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." We were standing together at the window looking out into the sunset across St. James's Park, and the appearance of the first lights along the Mall suggested the thought. [3]
Grey's quotation has been used as a summation of the war in numerous historical works. The German author Ludwig Reiners (1896–1957) published an account of World War I entitled The lamps went out in Europe. Therein Grey's comment is followed by the assertion attributed to Otto von Bismarck: "The mistakes that have been committed in foreign policy are not, as a rule, apparent to the public until a generation afterwards." [4] Samuel Hynes began his 1990 A War Imagined with a paragraph covering the quotation, referring to it as the best-known and most often quoted response to the beginning of the war. [5] In 2014 Grey's words were the inspiration for part of the British commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. Between 10 and 11 pm on 4 August 2014, lights were dimmed at many public locations and in private homes, including progressively at a national memorial service in Westminster Abbey. [6]
On 16 October 1938, Winston Churchill broadcast a speech known as "The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)" to London and the United States. In the speech he says, "The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together." [7]
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from 1922 to 1924, he was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon,, better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who was the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War.
Jeanette "Jennie" Spencer-Churchill, known as Lady Randolph Spencer-Churchill, was an American-born British socialite, the wife of Lord Randolph Churchill, and the mother of British prime minister Winston Churchill.
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"This was their finest hour" was a speech delivered by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940, just over a month after he took over as Prime Minister at the head of an all-party coalition government.
Józef Hieronim Retinger was a Polish politician, scholar, international political activist with access to some of the leading power brokers of the 20th century, a publicist and writer.
Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick, was a British diplomat who served as the British High Commissioner in Germany after World War II, and as the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the highest-ranking civil servant in the Foreign Office.
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Named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll, and widely regarded as being among the most influential people in British history, Winston Churchill has been regularly portrayed in film, television, radio and other media. The depictions range from minor character to the biographical centerpiece, exceeding 30 films, more than two dozen television shows, several stage productions, and countless books.
The Oder–Neisse line is an unofficial term for the modern border between Germany and Poland. The line generally follows the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, meeting the Baltic Sea in the north. A small portion of Polish territory does fall west of the line, including the cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście.
"When the Lights Go On Again " is a popular song composed during World War II. It was written by Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus and Eddie Seiler. The first recording, by Vaughn Monroe, reached number one on the charts in 1943.
Spectra is the name of a series of art installations by Ryoji Ikeda which use intense white light as a sculptural material. The most recent presentation of spectra was in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia for four days ending 24 June, 2018 to mark the winter solstice, and as an installation piece at the Dark Mofo festival held by MONA. spectra [Amsterdam] was the first presentation of the work in 2008 its current form; an array of xenon lamps pointed skywards lit from dusk till dawn accompanied by a mathematically derived score audible from each of the lamp bases. The work was first commissioned and produced by Forma Arts.
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Lights Out was an event on 4 August 2014 in the United Kingdom to commemorate the centenary of the start of World War I. It was inspired by the words of Sir Edward Grey, foreign secretary: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
The following events occurred in October 1938:
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Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty on 3 September 1939, the day that the United Kingdom declared war on Nazi Germany. He succeeded Neville Chamberlain as prime minister on 10 May 1940 and held the post until 26 July 1945. Out of office during the 1930s, Churchill had taken the lead in calling for British re-armament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany. As prime minister, he oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers. Regarded as the most important of the Allied leaders during the first half of the Second World War, Historians have long held Churchill in high regard as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism. For his wartime leadership and for his efforts in overseeing the war effort, he has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as one of the top three greatest British prime ministers, often as the greatest prime minister in British history.