ABSTRACT

The Edwardian age strictly defined ran from the accession of Edward VII in 1901 to his death in 1910. In certain contexts, however, it can be taken as continuing until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Because it was followed by this unprecedented and terrible war of attrition, the world before 1914 came to be remembered by many surviving well-to-do Edwardians with indulgence and nostalgia. 'So placid was this brief golden halt that often as a small child, passionately addicted to reading books of history, I used to wonder whether its stream had not altogether dried up . . . Nothing had happened for so long, and nothing would happen again . . . Everything was calm and still and kindly.' So claimed Sir Osbert Sitwell at the beginning of his first volume of memoirs, published in 1945. Sitwell looked back to a golden age which had never been. In period the Edwardians were very well aware of their many pressing problems, economic, social, and political. 'They place the golden age behind them,' wrote The Times (19.1.1909), 'and assume that no generation ever had to deal with evils so great and perplexing as those of the present day.'