Voices of military history
When World War I began in 1914, the British destroyer HMS Lance and her sister ship Landrail were performing a sweep of the North Sea.
The next day the two ships encountered the German minelayer Konigin Luise as it was setting mines off the Dutch coast. Lance fired a shell, eventually sinking the ship and making Konigin Luise the first naval casualty of the war.
Almost 100 years later, the gun that fired the opening shot at sea in World War I - the so-called "war to end all wars" - will take centre stage at the new remembrance gallery and exhibition at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard.
The Portsmouth exhibition - HMS: Hear My Story - will give voice to the stories of the men, women and ships which have contributed to the Royal Navy's history over the past 100 years and is part of a huge program of events across Britain and elsewhere in 2014 to mark the outbreak of a war that claimed the lives of more than nine million military personnel.
Nations - including Australia - communities and individuals across the globe will commemorate and remember the lives of those who lived, fought and died in World War I.
Among the memorabilia on show will be the Webley Mk VI service revolver that belonged to 2nd Lieutenant J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, fought with the 11th Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers in the front-line trenches of the Somme throughout the summer and autumn of 1916.
Graham Boxer, director of Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, where Tolkien's revolver is kept, says visitors will be able to see this weapon "and connect further with Tolkien's magical stories which were born from harrowing wartime experiences".
Tour operators are expecting a surge in demand for battlefield visits. From Australia and New Zealand interest will peak on April 25, 2015 when special services will be held to mark the 100th anniversary of the Anzac landings at Gallipoli.
James Power, managing director of the non-profit Somme Battlefield Tours, based in the United Kingdom, says that "just about anyone who develops even the mildest interest in the Great War at some point feels drawn to visit the battlefields of the Western Front".
Power says it is difficult to pinpoint why the Great War of 1914-1918 continues to cast such a long shadow over later generations. "Many who study the Great War somehow feel a strong sense of empathy towards those from all sides who suffered such terrible losses," he says.
In Britain, the First World War Centenary Partnership, led by the Imperial War Museum in London, will steer a four-year cultural program that includes 500 new exhibitions and 1500 events.
Visitors to Britain will be encouraged to participate in theatre performances, ceremonial vigils, art exhibitions, military re-enactments, church services and museum displays.
Diane Lees, director-general of the Imperial War Museum, says: "Our ambition is that a lot more people will understand that you can't understand the world today unless you understand the causes, course and consequences of the World War I."
The museum is keen to get the message across that "we're here to explain why it happened, it's absolutely not about glorifying the war and presenting a triumphalist message".
At Dover, there are plans for a National War Memorial with a design inspired by the famous Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington DC. Inscribed on 12 white granite walls would be the names of more than 1.7 million servicemen and women from Britain and the Commonwealth who died during the two world wars.
Stately home Castle Howard in Yorkshire will reveal what it was like "upstairs and downstairs" at the great British country houses during wartime.
The photographic and documentary exhibition Duty Calls: Castle Howard in Time of War will look at the impact of conflict on the castle and its community. It will showcase images and artefacts from the Howard family archive.
In July, the Imperial War Museum London will reopen after renovations with new First World War Galleries and Truth and Memory, the biggest and first major retrospective of British World War I art for almost 100 years.
The National Theatre's award-winning production of War Horse will be making a UK-wide tour until July this year. War Horse is the powerful story of a young boy, Albert, and his beloved horse Joey which has been requisitioned to fight in the war.
Writer Michael Morpurgo says the stories of sacrifice and valour in World War I were his inspiration for War Horse. He urges the British public, along with visitors to the country, "to read the poems, the stories, the history, the diaries, visit the cemeteries - German cemeteries as well as ours - they were all sons and brothers and lovers and husbands and fathers too".
In Europe, French President Francois Hollande has invited leaders of all nations that took part in the war to join him in Paris for its annual military parade in July.
France, which lost more than one million soldiers, will also unveil its latest monument to the dead and recall the bloody 1914 Battle of the Marne, the confrontation that left as many as half a million soldiers dead or wounded over a matter of days.
Highlights of Britain's WWI commemoration events in 2014
A new production of Oh, What A Lovely War! which contrasts the harsh reality of World War I with popular songs from the period to deliver a powerful anti-war message, is playing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East until March 15.
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland
Edinburgh Castle is to host a re-enactment of a front-line military service. This centrepiece event in the Scottish capital will see the recreation of the Drumhead service from the Great War, in which soldiers in the trenches piled drums draped with flags in place of a religious altar. edinburghcastle.gov.uk.
Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland
Glasgow Cathedral will provide the focus for Britain's commemoration of the outbreak of World War I with a service on August 4 likely to be attended by Commonwealth heads of state, including the Queen, the day after the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in the city.
Australia House
A specially commissioned production of poetry, prose and music of World War I, Never Such Innocence will be taking place at Australia House, London (May 14-15). Organised by Lady Lucy French in conjunction with the Australian High Commission, the piece will also include the letters and diaries of Lady French's great-grandfather, Field Marshal Sir John French, who officially opened Australia House in 1918. neversuchinnocence.com/australia-house.html.
National Trust
National Trust properties throughout the UK will be putting on special events and tours. Dunham Massey, in Cheshire, will be transformed back into Stamford Military Hospital, which offered a sanctuary from the trenches for almost 300 soldiers.
Australia Remembers
For Australia, World War I remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties.
From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of whom more than 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.
The Australian War Memorial will be commemorating the centenary of World War I through a major redevelopment of its First World War Gallery - due to open in November - and a variety of new public programs and events.
A temporary Great War exhibition, Anzac Voices, has opened in the Memorial's Temporary Exhibition gallery.
It follows the stories and lives of several soldiers throughout the war, told through their diaries, belongings, and letters.
The Anzac Centenary, an initiative of the Australian Federal Government, will include from October 31 to November 2, a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the departure of the first convoy of ships that carried the Australian Imperial Force and New Zealand Expeditionary Force to the European battlefront.
The convoy departed from Albany on the morning of November 1, 1914.
The Albany Convoy Commemorative Event will involve a series of activities including a commemorative service, gathering of naval vessels, ship-visit program and troop march.
