Queen's University Archives
Queen's University
World War 1: The Department of Information
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In 1914, during the first months of the war, he wrote his most famous novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. But he was to spend the first years of the war as a correspondent at the front. With his usual prodigious energy, he also managed to continue his work as publisher, author and war historian.
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He then served on the Headquarters Staff of the British Army in France (1916-17). But by 1917, his acclaimed work for the Foreign Office and War Office lead him to a position directing a newly formed Department of Information, coordinating the foreign propaganda work of several different government offices. "It was," he said, "the toughest job I ever took on."
His philosophy in this whirlwind of war work was clear: it was to be as objective as possible, no half-truths, no attempting to varnish over setbacks, nor ever denying any disaster. |
