Record revealed
Cabinet meeting minutes, 11 November 1918
Through this record, we can discover how the end of The First World War was announced to the British public.
Images
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The first page of notes from the War Cabinet's meeting minutes from 11 November 1918. Catalogue reference: CAB 23/14
Transcript
(1) The Prime Minister announced that he had received a message from France stating that the armistice had been signed at 5 a.m. that morning, November 11th, 1918, and that hostilities were to cease six hours later, viz., 11 a.m. He wished to consult his colleagues as to whether the public announcement of the signing of the armistice should be made at once and the form it should take.
After a brief discussion the War Cabinet decided -
(a) That the announcement should be made at once through the Press Bureau, to the effect that the armistice was signed at 5 a.m. and hostilities to cease at 11 a.m. today;
(b) That the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces should at once inform all Home Commands, and should take the necessary steps to celebrate the news by the firing of guns, playing of bands, blowing of bugles, and ringing of Church bells throughout the Kingdom:
(c) Similarly the First Lord should arrange for vessels of the Fleet to dress ship;
(d) That the order prohibiting the striking of Church and other public clocks should be at once rescinded, the Home Secretary to take the necessary action:
(e) That the terms of the armistice should not be made public until they had been communicated by the Prime Minister to the House of Commons simultaneously with a similar pronouncement by M. Clemenceau in the Chamber of Deputies:
(f) The Press Bureau to be informed accordingly.
(2) The First Lord read out a telegram (Appendix I) which had emanated from the German Warship STRASBURG summoning the German Fleet to repair to certain stations and be prepared to defend the Fatherland against the British. The message also called for a general concentration of German submarines at a northern port.
The Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff pointed out that the STRASBURG was the ship which had remained loyal longest.
(3) The First Lord read a message he had received from the First Sea Lord in France (Appendix II), saying that nothing was known beyond what had appeared in the Press of the present condition of the German Fleet: that the German Army was showing [continued on next page]
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A list of people present in this meeting, including the Prime Minster. Catalogue reference: CAB 23/14
Transcript
DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT.
WAR CABINET 500 b.
Minutes of a Meeting of the War Cabinet held at 10, Downing Street, S.W. on Monday, 11th. November, 1918, at 9.45 a.m.
PRESENT.
The Prime Minister (in the Chair)
The Rt. Hon. A. Bonar Law, M.P.
The Rt. Hon. G. N. Barnes, M.P.
Lieutenant-General the Rt. Hon. J. C. Smuts, K.C.,
THE FOLLOWING WERE ALSO PRESENT:
The Rt. Hon. A. J. Balfour, O.M., M.P., Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The Rt. Hon. Viscount Milner, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Secretary of State for War.
General Sir H. H. Wilson, K.C.B., D.S.O., Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
General Sir W. R. Robertson, G.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O., Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces.
The Rt. Hon. Sir E. Geddes, G.B.E., K.C.B., M.P., First Lord of the Admiralty.
Rear-Admiral S. R. Fremantle, C.B., M.V.O., Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.
The Rt. Hon. Sir J. Maclay, Bart., Shipping Controller.
Sir J. F. Beale, K.B.E., Secretary, Ministry of Food.
Lieutenant-Colonel W. Dally Jones, C.M.G., Acting Secretary.
Lieutenant-Colonel L. Storr, Assistant Secretary.
Major the Hon. W. Ormsby Gore, M.P., Assistant Secretary.
Why this record matters
- Date
- 11 November 1918
- Catalogue reference
- CAB 23/14/46
This document shows the meeting minutes of Prime Minster David Lloyd George’s War Cabinet at 9.45 am on 11 November 1918. Less than six hours before this meeting, at 5 am, the Armistice (peace agreement) between the Allied powers and Germany was signed. This marked the end of the First World War.
With less than two hours until hostilities were due to end at 11 am, the Cabinet had to decide how best to announce the end of the war to the public. After a brief discussion the Cabinet decided that the announcement should be made immediately through the Press Bureau, a government organisation.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces, Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, would arrange for the news to be celebrated ‘by the firing of maroons [flares], playing of bands, blowing of bugles, and ringing of Church bells throughout the Kingdom’. This would mark of the end of the war in a largescale and memorable manner.
The instruction gives a sense of the wave of joy that spread across the nation at this hugely significant news. However the sense of euphoria was tempered by a deep grief. Thousands of people were mourning their friends, family and neighbours who had died in the war.
The meeting minutes also include some notable comments by the Prime Minister about the food situation in enemy countries. Since the beginning of the war, the British had operated a naval blockade to prevent supplies getting to Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Lloyd George expressed in this meeting that: ‘enemy peoples were in a very bad way. It behoved us now to behave as a great nation and to do nothing which might arouse and harbour a spirit of revenge later. The future peace of the world would depend more on the way in which we behaved after victory than upon the victory itself’.
Although Lloyd George expressed these stirring sentiments, the minutes of this meeting show that he still wanted the blockade to continue, and so it did, until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.