The prospect of a shortage of gold owing to the threatened rupture of financial relations with the Continent resulted in a highly unusual spectacle at the Bank of England in London. From noon onwards on 31st July 1914 the courtyard was occupied by a changing queue of people keen to change their banknotes into gold. On 1 August 1914 the bank rate rose to 10 per cent, the highest since May 1866, and an indication of the gravity of the European situation at the outbreak of war.
