On this day in 1914, Britain declared war on Germany and so began what is known by many as the Great War.

Certainly that was a black day and sixteen million people are estimated to have died before it finished, but time and again we see how magnificently the human spirit responds to adversity. Albert Camus, the Algerian French agnostic thinker and philosopher, wrote “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” (From L'Etranger 1942)

Another Frenchman, Jean P...

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