1914: life before war – in pictures

A street hawker takes advantage of the coal porters' strike by selling wood blocks to domestic users Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Competitors wait outside the Agricultural Hall for the Crufts Dog Show; the Cross sisters, on the left, arrive with arms and baskets full of Pekingese Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Children campaigning for Charles Masterman for cabinet minister during the Bethnal Green byelection on 13 February Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A woman clearing up after her home in Cradley Heath was part-demolished by mining subsidence Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The launch of the White Star liner Britannic from Belfast on 26 February. The sister ship of the Olympic and Titanic, she sank in the Aegean sea on 21 November Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A rider and spectator chat at a meet of the Cottesmore Fox Hunt, Stapleford Hall. The war and conscription would break up the hunts, changing the aristocratic country life of England for ever Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A motorist attempts to start his car engine on a flooded road in the Thames Valley on 12 March Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Visitors read a sign outside the National Gallery, London, after it closed following a suffragette attack on Diego Velazquez's Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver in March Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Theatre staff, including three nurses, in the operating theatre at King's College hospital on 1 April Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The Holborn division assembles in Red Lion square for the Great Ulster rally at Hyde Park Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Boys fishing in St James's Park during the fine spring weather in April Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The 1914 FA Cup final between Liverpool and Burnley, held at Crystal Palace Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Fans find a novel way of watching the Burnley vs Liverpool FA Cup final at Crystal Palace Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Liverpool Street station, London Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A police officer tries to remove a Suffragette from the railings outside Buckingham Palace during a demonstration Photograph: Central Press/Getty Images

Diners at the Elysee restaurant in London's Piccadilly Photograph: Reinhold Thiele/Getty Images

A steam wagon accident in Chelsea, London Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Two fashionable spectators at the Wimbledon tennis championships, London Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Crew members in the forecastle of SS Endurance at Millwall Docks in London in July, during preparations for Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. From left to right: Joe Irving, Oswald Barr, Tim McCarthy and Wal How Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

Crowds in punts on the Thames watching the Henley Regatta in July Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

A Marks & Spencer store in Holloway, London Photograph: Getty Images

British field marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres (1852-1925) leaves the War Office in London at the start of the first world war in August. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force in the same month Photograph: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images