Harold Temperley - An Historian in Peace and War: The Diaries of Harold Temperley

AN HISTORIAN IN PEACE AND WAR

The University of Birmingham, UK

The First World War is a subject of perennial interest to historians and is often regarded as a watershed event, marking the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the modern industrial world. The sheer scale of the conflict and massive loss of life means that it is constantly being assessed and reassessed to examine its lasting military, political, sociological, industrial, cultural and economic impact. Reflecting the latest international scholarly research, the Ashgate Studies in First World War History series provides a unique platform for the publication of monographs on all aspects of the Great War. Whilst the main thrust of the series is on the military aspects of the conflict, other related areas (including cultural, political and social) are also addressed. Books published are aimed primarily at a post-graduate academic audience, furthering exciting recent interpretations of the war, whilst still being accessible enough to appeal to a wider audience of educated lay readers.

Also in this series

Ross Davies

Adam R. Seipp

Marina Soroka

Edited by Stuart Ball

The Diaries of Harold Temperley

T.G. OTTE

First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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Copyright T.G. Otte 2014

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Temperley, Harold William Vazeille, 1879-1939.

An historian in peace and war: the diaries of Harold Temperley / edited by T.G. Otte.

pages cm. (Ashgate studies in First World War history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7546-6393-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-3155-6680-1 (ebook) ISBN 978-1-3171-8192-7 (epub) 1. Temperley, Harold William Vazeille, 1879-1939Diaries. 2. HistoriansGreat BritainDiaries. 3. ScholarsGreat BritainDiaries. 4. SoldiersGreat BritainDiaries. 5. World War, 1914-1918Personal narratives, British. 6. Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920) I. Otte, Thomas G., 1967 editor. II. Title.

D15.T45A3 2014

907.202dc23

[B]

2013043321

ISBN 978-0-7546-6393-5 (hbk)

ISBN 978-1-3155-6680-1 (ebk PDF)

ISBN 978-1-3171-8192-7 (ebk ePUB)

Harold Temperley was one of Britains foremost diplomatic historians of the twentieth century, renowned for his work on the foreign policy of Canning, for his writing on the politics and diplomacy of Eastern Europe and the Balkans and for his editing (with G.P. Gooch) of British Documents on the Origins of the War. Now, perhaps long overdue, he adds diarist to his list of accomplishments. Temperley was 35 when the Great War began and only recently married, but he volunteered for military service, which was prematurely ended by dysentery and other diseases before his regiment, the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. Although Temperleys health was permanently impaired by his experiences, his illness happily saw him transferred to other duties, as a general staff officer at the War Office, initially posted to Section 2(a) of Military Intelligence. The First World War was really the first time that the British state had exploited the expertise of academics. Temperley was among a number of other historians, including Lewis Namier, G.W. Prothero and R.W. Seton-Watson, who became Whitehall warriors and who were to play important parts in the formulation of British peace planning, especially in relation to the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although Temperleys influence on policy was real, he was, perhaps, not at the very heart of decision-making. This was fortuitous. The most illuminating diarists tend to be, in Professor Ottes felicitous phrase, the ones with ringside seats rather than the contestants. Temperley began his diaries in the autumn of 1916 and continued them until his premature death in July 1939, since when they have remained in the possession of his family. It is to their credit and to that of Temperleys expert editor and sympathetic interpreter, Professor T.G. Otte, that the diaries now take their place alongside those of J.W. Headlam-Morley and Harold Nicolson as essential sources for anyone wishing to understand the development of British foreign policy and diplomacy between 1916 and 1919.

John Bourne

Centre for War Studies

The University of Birmingham

July 2013

The First World War and the subsequent peace settlement shaped the short twentieth century that followed. The profound significance of the events of 191419 was also appreciated by Harold Temperley, whose diaries are presented here. An established scholar at the outbreak of the war, and later one of Britains foremost modern and more especially diplomatic historians, the conflict also shaped Temperleys own life and career. He enlisted in the army in August 1914. Invalided during the Dardanelles campaign in 1915, he spent the remainder of the war and its immediate aftermath as a general staff officer in military intelligence. In this function he played a significant role in preparing British strategy for the eventual peace conference and in finalizing several of the post-war boundaries in Eastern Europe. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, Temperley was to co-edit the British diplomatic documents on the origins of the war; and the vicissitudes of modern Great Power politics were to be his principal preoccupation, both in his scholarly pursuits and as a current political concern.

The reasons for keeping diaries may be as varied as their authors characters and lives. In Temperleys case, a natural literary ease and fluency may, in part, explain his motivations. He was certainly in the habit of writing up impressions in diary form since 1900. Until the war, however, he did not keep a daily diary, but rather a form of travel journal, which he kept during his summer visits to continental destinations, and in which he recorded historical reflections on the countries visited or impressions of local historical monuments, museums and art galleries. It seems that Temperley did not keep a diary during the first two years of the war; at least, none survives. This changed from the autumn of 1916 onwards. Firmly installed at the War Office as an intelligence officer, he now made a more or less daily record of his activities and observations. As a professional historian he naturally appreciated the significance of eyewitness accounts, and it seems clear from the nature of the source that he meant eventually to publish at least parts of his diary. His premature death, in 1939, prevented this. Later attempts in this direction by his widow led nowhere.