Every household in Britain will be asked to turn out the lights at 11pm on 4 August to mark the Centenary of the First World War.

The event makes reference a comment by Sir Edward Grey, UK foreign secretary in 1914, who said: ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’

The initiative forms part of a UK cultural programme to commemorate the Centenary of the First World War.

Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium on 3 August 1914.

That evening, Sir Edward Grey gazed across St James’s Park from his window at the Foreign Office as the lamps were being lit on the Mall. He turned to a friend, John Spender, and made his now famous remark.