Financing the British Army’s Planning for a European Continental War, 1904–1914

The British army made contingency plans for an intervention in a European continental war during the ten years before the start of the First World War in 1914. The army’s planning took place within a context of tight financial limits. Under the Liberal governments from 1905, the army’s overall annual budget was capped at £28 million. There were four determinants to the army’s financial planning. First, there was the long-standing Treasury policy of the balanced budget. Secondly, the Liberals prioritised spending on their social and domestic programmes rather than on the armed forces. Thirdly, as far as the armed forces’ expenditure was concerned, the Royal Navy took precedence. Finally, ministers were wary of any overt sign that they might deploy military forces in mainland Europe. Yet within these determinants, the British army was able, albeit slowly and painstakingly, to invest in its plans for a European war. Based on the annual army estimates, annual reports and explanatory memoranda presented to Parliament, internal Cabinet and War Office papers, and the personal papers of those concerned, it is possible to see how resources were allocated to organise and mobilise a British Expeditionary Force and to provide the necessary logistical infrastructure to deploy that force to mainland Europe.


Colin Harnett is a part-time PhD student at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His thesis title is ‘The British Army’s Planning for a European Continental War, 1904-1914’, supervised by Dr Spencer Jones.

He took an MA in Britain and the First World War at the University of Wolverhampton (2017–2020). Following a career in UK local government and the UK home civil service. I He has an MA in History from Cambridge University.

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