1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,280 MILITARY DRUMBEAT 2 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,640 OMINOUS MUSIC 3 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,000 At three in the afternoon of May 7th, 1915, 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,680 a rocket was fired high into the sky off the southwest coast of Ireland. 5 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,080 It summoned the crew of the local lifeboat. 6 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,880 A passenger ship had been spotted in distress on the horizon. 7 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,920 The lifeboat of 1915 had no engine. 8 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:49,280 It was powered by 12 strong volunteers, 9 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,040 who, as they rowed, prayed, 10 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:56,640 because they reckoned it would take at least three hours 11 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,040 to reach the scene of the disaster. 12 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,240 They were met with a horrifying sight. 13 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:09,880 In the water, were hundreds of bodies 14 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:12,640 and the wreckage of a vast ocean liner. 15 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,960 The Lusitania had left New York six days earlier 16 00:01:27,960 --> 00:01:30,640 loaded with British and American passengers. 17 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,240 She was the fastest ocean-going liner in the world... 18 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:41,880 ..a floating five-star hotel. 19 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:51,360 The Lusitania was expected in Liverpool later that afternoon. 20 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,320 But she would never reach her destination. 21 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,480 The ship was the victim not of natural disaster, 22 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:05,400 but of an unprecedented act of war... 23 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:09,920 ..by a German submarine. 24 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:20,720 When Kapitan Walther Schwieger fired his torpedo from his U-boat, 25 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,200 the U20, he scored a direct hit 26 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,160 on the most famous ocean-going liner in the world. 27 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:31,440 And, in so doing, he signalled the start of a new kind of warfare - 28 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:35,520 a warfare which made no distinction between those who wore a uniform 29 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:37,240 and those who didn't, 30 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:39,320 between men and women, 31 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:41,200 or between adults and children. 32 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:54,120 Almost 1,200 people were murdered. 33 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,960 It was the biggest single maritime disaster of the First World War. 34 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:06,440 The bodies of the dead were brought ashore 35 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:08,880 and laid on the quayside among the tins of paint 36 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:12,800 and the coils of rope, while survivors searched 37 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:16,360 desperately among them to try to identify missing relatives. 38 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,760 One mother posted a notice in a shop window over there. 39 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:24,440 It read, "Lusitania - missing baby, 15 months, 40 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:28,280 "very fair, curly hair, rosy complexion... 41 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:30,560 "tries to talk and walk." 42 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:41,680 For the first time in the nation's history, 43 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,440 ordinary people were being dragged into total war. 44 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:53,200 This is the story of how that conflict transformed the lives 45 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,080 of everyone in Britain. 46 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,560 Each man and woman would have to play their part, 47 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,920 and the nation would have to change utterly, and change quickly, 48 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:07,920 to have any hope of victory. 49 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:21,520 THEME MUSIC PLAYS 50 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:49,440 BIRDSONG 51 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:55,160 CROW CAWS 52 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:04,120 Bodies of the dead from the Lusitania 53 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,960 were washing up on the Irish coast for weeks afterwards. 54 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,280 144 of the victims are buried in mass graves 55 00:05:15,280 --> 00:05:17,120 in this single cemetery. 56 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:33,560 It was the fact that so many of the victims were women, 57 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,360 so many of them were children, so many of them were babies, 58 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,760 that really angered people. 59 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:42,720 The sinking of the Lusitania seemed to bring war 60 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:47,120 to a new level of barbarism, and ever closer to home. 61 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,760 The reaction in Britain to the sinking of the Lusitania 62 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,800 was instant and violent. 63 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:05,360 Mobs surged through the streets 64 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:08,560 smashing any remotely German-sounding property. 65 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:14,200 In London, there were anti-German riots in the East End... 66 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:23,920 ..but public outrage provided the Government with an unexpected boost. 67 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,080 It acted as a recruiting sergeant for Britain's volunteer army. 68 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,640 The Secretary for War and hero of Empire Lord Kitchener 69 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:39,400 pleaded for thousands more volunteers to go to fight 70 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:41,120 in France and Belgium. 71 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:49,240 But, at the front, 72 00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:53,400 nine months of heavy fighting had failed to drive out the Germans. 73 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:02,320 The two sides faced each other along a line of trenches 74 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,600 stretching almost 500 miles. 75 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:12,400 In this new kind of industrial warfare, 76 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,960 there was one thing the army needed even more than it needed soldiers. 77 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:22,480 It needed munitions - 78 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:23,880 guns... 79 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:25,720 bullets... 80 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:27,120 and shells. 81 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:31,480 But despairing front line commanders 82 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:33,360 claimed they were being supplied 83 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:37,120 with the wrong kind of shells - simply not powerful enough 84 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,960 to destroy well-built enemy defences. 85 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,360 The shocking truth was exposed not in Parliament, 86 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,000 but in the popular press. 87 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,040 The patriotic Daily Mail decided it was time to break ranks, 88 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:08,160 launching a sensational attack on the War Secretary, 89 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:10,200 Lord Kitchener, himself. 90 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:16,360 On May 21st, 1915, a fortnight after the Lusitania, 91 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:20,000 the Daily Mail published an editorial. 92 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,960 "The Tragedy of the Shells - Lord Kitchener's grave error." 93 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:28,800 It alleged that the British government had sent the wrong kind 94 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:32,400 of shells to the Western Front and thereby caused the deaths 95 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:34,200 of British servicemen. 96 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,160 Now, it doesn't look very much on the page, 97 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:41,200 but, in the context of the time, this was a sensational accusation, 98 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:43,960 because it maintained that the British government 99 00:08:43,960 --> 00:08:47,720 had been directly responsible for the deaths of its own citizens. 100 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,800 The shells scandal raised an alarming question - 101 00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:01,800 were Britain's ruling class up to the job of winning the war? 102 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:08,440 The reputation of Kitchener would never really recover. 103 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:12,320 He was forced to make way for the man who, more than any other, 104 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:14,920 saw that, to achieve victory, 105 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,280 Britain itself would have to be transformed. 106 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:28,120 David Lloyd George, the newly created Minister of Munitions, 107 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:30,120 was a different sort of politician. 108 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,880 A Welshman with the common touch... 109 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:38,520 a passionate speaker... 110 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:41,040 a wily deal maker... 111 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,800 and the country's future Prime Minister. 112 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:53,000 From now on, in many ways, it would be Lloyd George's war. 113 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:55,720 Well, he was 114 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,400 an exceptional man in his own time. 115 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:03,080 And I think his great thing was that he had the foresight 116 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,240 to think strategically ahead and to get things moving, 117 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:12,200 and to mobilise the whole workforce in the country. 118 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:13,880 He had a different imagination 119 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:16,240 of how the war could be fought, didn't he? 120 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:18,920 Yes. He did actually have two sons 121 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:22,240 fighting in the front line in the war. 122 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:26,720 My Uncle Dick was a sapper and my father Gwilym was a gunner. 123 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,920 They were actually at the front throughout the war. 124 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:35,080 They would come back on leave to Downing Street 125 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:37,720 and he'd get first-hand information 126 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,880 about what things were like in the war. 127 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:44,640 And I think he saw very quickly that the way to increase 128 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:47,440 supplies of shells, and things like that, 129 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:51,000 was to harness businesspeople who were used to doing things, 130 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,240 and were used to doing them to a timetable. 131 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,120 He really was the man for the job, wasn't he? Yes. 132 00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:59,480 He had the vision, and he had the strategy, 133 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,360 and he had the determination. 134 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,360 Lloyd George needed every worker in Britain on side. 135 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,920 But there could never be enough of them to produce 136 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:18,640 the amount of munitions the country needed to fight a modern war. 137 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:25,680 He'd have to mobilise a new workforce - 138 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:29,320 a new industrial army - 139 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:31,360 the women of Britain. 140 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,840 The trouble was, some of the women in Britain 141 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:40,240 saw the Government as their sworn enemy. 142 00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:47,920 The suffragettes wanted the vote for women 143 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,360 and had made serious trouble before the war to get it. 144 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:56,200 The Government had so far refused. 145 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,400 But Lloyd George saw that women's rights 146 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:09,360 and winning the war could be one and the same cause. 147 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:16,000 He set up a meeting with the notorious leader 148 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,480 of the suffragettes, Emmeline Pankhurst. 149 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:22,120 She had just finished a jail sentence for a bomb attack - 150 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:24,560 a bomb attack on his own house. 151 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:33,560 Pinfold Manor was the country home 152 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:34,880 Lloyd George had just built 153 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,040 for himself in the Surrey stockbroker belt. 154 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,120 Shortly before the outbreak of war, 155 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,720 a bomb tore through the house, wrecking five rooms. 156 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:47,440 The job of the police was made easy 157 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:50,000 when hat pins were found at the scene. 158 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:56,320 Emmeline Pankhurst and her suffragettes owned up to the attack. 159 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:06,560 They got in through this very tiny window. 160 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:09,240 It is tiny, isn't it? Absolutely minute. 161 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:12,200 There were two bombs, I believe - 162 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:13,960 one which went off, and one which didn't. 163 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:16,920 I think there were three... Three?! ..and one went off and two didn't. 164 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:19,560 Wow. Had they gone off, probably more would have been damaged. 165 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:22,560 Lucky, otherwise you'd have nowhere to live, would you? True. 166 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:30,680 When asked why she had done it, Pankhurst replied, "To wake him up!" 167 00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:34,440 that is, to frighten the Government into giving women the vote. 168 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,760 Fortunately for Lloyd George, he'd yet to move in. 169 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,920 But now there was a war on. It was time for the suffragette bomber 170 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:47,960 and the government minister to cut a deal. 171 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,520 These were strange days and no time to be bearing a grudge 172 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,720 over a little matter like someone trying to blow your house up. 173 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,640 Lloyd George wanted women for the war effort, 174 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:04,120 and Emmeline Pankhurst wanted women to have the vote. 175 00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:05,960 MUSIC: "The March Of The Women" 176 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:08,120 # Life! Strife... # 177 00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:10,080 They would eventually get it, 178 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,560 though they'd have to wait till the war was almost over. 179 00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:17,160 A mere few weeks after the meeting, 180 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,120 Emmeline Pankhurst fulfilled her side of the bargain. 181 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:27,480 On July 17th, 1915, she led 30,000 women down London's Embankment 182 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,840 to demand a place in the struggle for victory. 183 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,360 It was called the Women's Right to Serve March. 184 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:40,320 What few people knew was that the Government was paying for it. 185 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,280 # ..Shoulder to shoulder and friend to hand... # 186 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:49,120 Many of those watching did so in horror. 187 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:50,680 These marching women, 188 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,280 with their strident demands and their noisy voices, 189 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:58,880 did not conform to the traditional idea of femininity. 190 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:01,480 But those watching would be astonished, 191 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:04,600 because this was the start of the biggest social revolution 192 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:06,320 of modern times. 193 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,560 Women in the workforce were nothing new. 194 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:18,120 But now women began to do jobs which only men had done. 195 00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:22,840 Suddenly, Britain began to look very different... 196 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:25,920 ..on the streets... 197 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:28,040 in the fields... 198 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:29,760 and in the factories. 199 00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:43,600 The biggest change in the fortunes of women 200 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,040 would take place in a strange, sometimes frightening, new world. 201 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:06,800 In 1915, this was one of the most dangerous places in Britain. 202 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:17,440 It's pretty hard to believe now, but this peaceful place was once alive 203 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:22,720 with 6,000 people making explosives for the armies on the front. 204 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,040 These strange structures were designed 205 00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:32,480 to withstand accidental blasts. 206 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:36,680 To mix the high explosive nitroglycerin. 207 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:42,360 To make cordite, providing the bang that powered shells and bullets. 208 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,040 For some, it wasn't the work that came as a shock, 209 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,040 it was the accents. 210 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,600 "Frankly, I didn't care for my companions," 211 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,840 said one middle class woman. 212 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,800 "They struck me as rough, ill-natured, loud-voiced, 213 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:01,680 "vulgar little hussies." 214 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:03,120 But she added, 215 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:07,560 "Within a week, I had come to like them and, finally, to love them." 216 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,840 They were known as munitionettes. 217 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:18,960 The ones who worked at the Royal Gunpowder Mills 218 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:23,080 formed just a part of the million strong female workforce 219 00:17:23,080 --> 00:17:27,200 employed by Lloyd George's new Ministry of Munitions. 220 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:34,400 The experience was exciting, new and dangerous. 221 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,720 Inevitably, there were casualties. 222 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,000 This is a photo of a woman called Charlotte Mead, 223 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,600 mother of five children, with a husband fighting in France. 224 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,040 It's taken in a photographer's studio, 225 00:17:55,040 --> 00:17:59,000 where she's posing in munitions factory overalls. 226 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,640 It's probably just as well it's in black and white, 227 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:04,800 because working in close contact with high explosives 228 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:06,880 could do terrible things to you. 229 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:10,280 It could, for example, turn your skin yellow. 230 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:14,320 Within a year of this photograph being taken, 231 00:18:14,320 --> 00:18:17,040 she was dead of toxic jaundice. 232 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,040 Not that you could have read about it in the newspapers, 233 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,760 because the press was banned from reporting such things. 234 00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:29,640 By the time her husband returned from the front, it was too late. 235 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,200 The need for bullets, guns and shells was almost insatiable 236 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,880 in this relentless, total war. 237 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,280 Meeting that need involved the most dramatic 238 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,480 transformation of production the country had ever seen. 239 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:08,520 Lloyd George's impact on the munitions industry was spectacular. 240 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,840 Within six months, the number of shells being manufactured 241 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,720 had increased 20-fold. 242 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:18,160 Weapons, which had previously taken a year to manufacture, 243 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,680 were now being turned out in three weeks. 244 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,200 There would be no more shell scandals. 245 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,280 But, for Lloyd George, this was just the beginning. 246 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,480 "An undisciplined nation," he said, 247 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,520 "was fighting the best disciplined country in the world." 248 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,600 Every person in Britain had to dedicate themselves 249 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,800 to winning the war. 250 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,280 Starting in the pub. 251 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:51,400 # Another little drink Another little drink 252 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:54,800 # Another little drink wouldn't do us any harm... # 253 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,640 Hangovers were harming the war effort. 254 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,040 "Workers who drank," said Lloyd George, 255 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,360 "were murdering men in the trenches." 256 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,440 So brewers were ordered to water the beer, 257 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:11,760 pubs to limit opening hours, 258 00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:14,560 and public figures - including the King - 259 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:16,840 pledged to give up drink till the war was over. 260 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,880 # ..Another little drink wouldn't do us any harm. # 261 00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:24,240 Under the No Treating rule, 262 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,600 it became an offence to buy a drink for someone else. 263 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:34,000 A man in Southampton was fined for buying his wife a glass of wine. 264 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,400 So was his wife. 265 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:38,240 So was the barmaid. 266 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,080 Britain was learning to do as it was told. 267 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,040 Or much of it was. 268 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:53,240 For not everyone was so ready to knuckle down to government demands. 269 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,960 On the banks of the Clyde, a crisis was brewing 270 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,520 that threatened the very conduct of the war itself. 271 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,480 The Clyde shipyards were at the heart of the war effort. 272 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:16,200 From here came battle cruisers, destroyers, 273 00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:19,120 minesweepers and merchant ships. 274 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,640 The shipbuilders of the Clyde were skilled, 275 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:30,120 comparatively well paid and militant. 276 00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:33,160 And they weren't impressed by the Government telling them 277 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,160 the nation had to pull together in a spirit of sacrifice. 278 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,240 They saw the bosses doing very well out of the war. 279 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:49,960 Because, to some people, the war was less about sacrifice 280 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:52,640 and suffering than it was about an opportunity 281 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:54,400 to make money, a lot of money. 282 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,480 There were uniforms to be made, guns to be assembled, 283 00:21:57,480 --> 00:21:59,040 ships to be built. 284 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:02,720 Some engineering firms saw their profits really soar, 285 00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:06,440 and some workers weren't prepared to put up with that. 286 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,560 They called it profiteering. 287 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,320 But when workers on the Clyde threatened to strike, 288 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:16,920 there was outrage. 289 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,200 Lloyd George went to meet them. 290 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,560 Talk of patriotic duty fell on deaf ears. 291 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:29,480 Strikers sang the Red Flag and told him to get his hair cut. 292 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:34,120 The Government's patience snapped. 293 00:22:34,120 --> 00:22:37,360 The ringleaders were arrested under the Defence of The Realm Act - 294 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:41,480 an emergency law designed to muzzle anyone undermining the war effort. 295 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,720 The strike collapsed. 296 00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:50,520 A century later, the episode still evokes 297 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:53,600 powerful feelings from local trade unionists, 298 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,360 like Davie Torrance and Davie Cooper. 299 00:22:57,360 --> 00:23:00,360 There would be many people, and it was said, that it was an act of 300 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:05,800 disloyalty for the trade unionists to start being difficult, 301 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,360 disrupting things, making demands that were not very readily met, 302 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:11,640 certainly by the employers, 303 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:14,280 and there was a lot of public resistance too, wasn't there? 304 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:16,880 Indeed. There was a feeling there that it wasn't our war, 305 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,080 it was the bosses trying to carve out more capital for themselves. 306 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,720 That was the feeling. But vast numbers of people did volunteer. 307 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,520 Well, people got conned. 308 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:29,160 They're still conning people to go to Afghanistan and Iraq. 309 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,400 The point, of course, 310 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:32,960 the people who wished to continue with the war, 311 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:35,600 to a great extent, were profiteers 312 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:37,560 and racketeers, in many cases. 313 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:41,560 So, therefore, to say that we were less than patriotic 314 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:43,600 I don't think is quite correct. 315 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,800 You really think that the ruling classes unnecessarily 316 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,640 prolonged the war so that some people could make money out of it? 317 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,320 Yeah. Yep. It's a fair assumption. 318 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:58,280 I get the strong impression talking to you two that you actually 319 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,800 think that these guys who caused this industrial disruption, 320 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:03,840 about which the Government was extremely 321 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,160 exercised during the First World War, 322 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:08,840 because of the dangers they saw to the war effort, 323 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,000 that these guys are actually heroes of yours? 324 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:12,880 Definitely. Obviously. Definitely. No?! 325 00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,760 Political and industrial heroes. Yeah. 326 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:17,400 You were difficult buggers, weren't you? Aye, absolutely. 327 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,640 Very well-organised, difficult buggers. 328 00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,880 THEY LAUGH 329 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:29,560 The Government had acted tough with the striking shipbuilders... 330 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:31,080 and won. 331 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,200 But the pressure of war allowed - indeed, compelled - 332 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,520 politicians to intervene even further in the lives 333 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:38,560 of British citizens, 334 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,400 including where they were to live. 335 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,120 Men and women flooding into the shipyards 336 00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:55,040 and factories of Glasgow needed homes. 337 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:03,320 In these rented tenements, families lived crammed together, 338 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:05,680 eight families to a block. 339 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,040 The fathers, husbands and sons worked in the shipyards, 340 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:12,680 or were now away fighting at the front. 341 00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:15,880 With demand high, and the menfolk away, 342 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,000 the landlords saw their chance. 343 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,640 What better opportunity to raise the rents? 344 00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:30,480 The results were devastating. 345 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:35,440 Families who had lived for years in this tightly-knit community 346 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,360 now faced being uprooted. 347 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,640 One woman decided she wasn't going to have it. 348 00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,800 Mary Barbour was a 40-year-old mother of two 349 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,680 and a pillar of the local Socialist Sunday School. 350 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:09,440 She decided to organise a campaign of resistance - a rent strike. 351 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,880 Soon, over 20,000 Glasgow tenants 352 00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:18,680 were refusing to pay the rent increases. 353 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,160 They quickly became known as Mrs Barbour's Army. 354 00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:29,600 It wasn't long before some of them 355 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:31,560 ended up in court. 356 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:38,800 On the morning of the 17th November, 1915, 357 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:42,760 an enormous crowd of women and children from the tenements 358 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:47,000 had gathered here outside the Sheriff's Court in Glasgow. 359 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:51,480 Inside, 18 defendants were on trial for refusing to pay 360 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,680 the increase in their rents. 361 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,480 Mrs Barbour's Army had been joined by a new influx of recruits - 362 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,800 men from the factories and shipyards - 363 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,720 determined to force a confrontation. 364 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:12,120 The crowd carried placards which caught the eyes of the press. 365 00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:15,240 The last thing the Government wanted were pictures 366 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,840 of the families of soldiers being thrown out on the street. 367 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:25,840 The crowd was getting restless, and the Sheriff was worried. 368 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:27,960 He telephoned London and got through 369 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,440 to the Minister of Munitions, Lloyd George. 370 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,360 "The workers have left the factories", he said, 371 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:38,440 "they are threatening to pull down Glasgow. What am I to do?" 372 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,600 Lloyd George's response was instant - 373 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:43,280 "Stop the case. 374 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,120 "A Rent Restriction Act will be introduced." 375 00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:48,720 There was wild cheering in the streets. 376 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,480 Tenants would now be protected from exploitation by landlords, 377 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:59,160 and rents fixed at pre-war levels. 378 00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:04,080 It was one of the most important laws of modern times. 379 00:28:06,360 --> 00:28:09,440 Once again, the war had forced government 380 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,520 to intervene in the lives of British citizens. 381 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,440 It had put women into the workplace, 382 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:16,680 it had made laws about strikes, 383 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,800 it had even determined what and when people could drink, 384 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:23,720 and now it was making a law about what they paid 385 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,240 to keep a roof over their heads. 386 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,400 A social revolution was under way. 387 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:37,040 But whatever the Government might do for families at home, 388 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,440 for men at the front, it could do almost nothing. 389 00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,000 The war had ground to a deadly stalemate. 390 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:51,320 Life in the trenches was muddy and miserable. 391 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,000 Rats and lice were everywhere, 392 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,040 food was usually cold, 393 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,360 and feet were rarely dry. 394 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:12,120 The air was heavy with the smell of explosives, death and decay. 395 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:22,080 The trenches were intended to protect you from bullets. 396 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,640 Artillery shells were another matter altogether. 397 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:33,400 A direct hit on a trench meant scorchingly hot metal, 398 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:38,400 shards of wood, earth and body parts flying everywhere. 399 00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:41,240 One soldier recalled making his way along a trench 400 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:43,640 when a shell landed behind him. 401 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,960 He looked back and he saw just a black hole 402 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:49,000 where, moments earlier, 403 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:53,000 a lance corporal had been boiling water in his mess tin. 404 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,520 In the muck and fear of the trenches, 405 00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,120 a new sort of family was formed. 406 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,280 A corporal and a few men in a trench were like survivors 407 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:20,040 from a shipwreck on a raft, 408 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:22,000 was the way one veteran remembered it. 409 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,480 # Oh, how I want you 410 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,960 # Dear old pal of mine... # 411 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:35,600 The extended family was the few dozen men in your platoon. 412 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,680 And the father figure - the lieutenant. 413 00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:43,640 This was usually a boy of no more than 19 or so. 414 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:54,320 As in the factories back home, 415 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:56,800 the war was creating - if briefly - 416 00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,440 a new kind of society, 417 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,120 bringing together people who'd scarcely been aware 418 00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:03,800 of each other's existence. 419 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:12,400 It was the responsibility of young officers in their dugouts to read 420 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,280 and, if necessary, to censor their men's letters home. 421 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:22,280 As a lieutenant in the trenches, the future Prime Minister 422 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:26,600 Harold Macmillan described the effect of reading their mail. 423 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,960 "Dear Mother, are you on the drink again? 424 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,240 "Uncle George says the children are in a shocking state." 425 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:42,160 Macmillan found the task brought him much closer to his men. 426 00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:45,200 "They have very big hearts, these soldiers," he said. 427 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,080 "It is very moving to read all their letters home." 428 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,680 Before battles, soldiers wrote home 429 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,640 for what they knew might be the last time. 430 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:00,680 One was John Scollen, 431 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,600 a miner from Durham who had volunteered with his friends 432 00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,120 early in the war. 433 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:11,400 "We are about to attack those awful Germans. 434 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:15,000 "If it's God's Holy will that I should fall, 435 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:19,760 "I shall have done my duty to King and country." 436 00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,760 "Dear Tina, you have been a good wife and mother, 437 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,040 "and brought up our canny bairns, 438 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,440 "whom I'm sure will be a credit to both of us. 439 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:32,160 "My Joe, Jack, Tina and Aggie, 440 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,800 "not forgetting my bonny twins Nora and Hugh, 441 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,160 "and my flower baby, whom I have only had the great pleasure 442 00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,560 "of seeing once. 443 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:45,560 "I know these are hard words to receive, 444 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,760 "but God's will be done. 445 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:54,320 "From your faithful husband, soldier and father, John Scollen. 446 00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:00,440 "Goodbye, my loved ones. Don't cry." 447 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,280 DISTANT EXPLOSIONS 448 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,360 Five days later, John Scollen was killed in battle. 449 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,000 His body was never found. 450 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,360 By the end of 1915, 451 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,120 British forces had suffered almost half a million dead 452 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:44,720 and wounded for no significant military advantage. 453 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,440 How, then, was the war to be won? 454 00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,760 The answer to some seemed obvious. 455 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,080 There were still nearly two million men of fighting age 456 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,960 who HADN'T volunteered. 457 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,440 Why should some risk their lives at the front, 458 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:14,160 while others stayed at home? 459 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:19,520 Any man who wouldn't volunteer to fight should be made to fight. 460 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,800 In other words, conscription. 461 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:28,120 But compulsory military service went against the grain of the British 462 00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:32,280 way of doing things, of respect for individual freedoms. 463 00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:34,640 Never before in the nation's history 464 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:38,560 had the law compelled men to fight in war. 465 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:45,040 But never had the nation been in such desperate straits. 466 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,400 In January 1916, men aged between 19 and 40 467 00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:56,080 were ordered to turn up at their local recruiting office. 468 00:34:57,480 --> 00:35:01,840 Failure to attend would be seen as desertion. 469 00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:04,400 The authorities began to round up 470 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,280 men of military age in public places. 471 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:12,920 At one London station, passengers found the exits blocked 472 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,720 and taxis nowhere to be seen. 473 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:19,360 Those without the right papers were taken away and questioned. 474 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,160 But getting the dreaded call-up papers 475 00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:28,680 wasn't always the end of the story. 476 00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,600 All over Britain, tribunals of local worthies 477 00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:45,840 heard appeals from anyone who felt they had a right to stay at home. 478 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:52,120 Over a million men - more than half the number called up - 479 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,120 took the opportunity to plead their case. 480 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,960 Presiding over the tribunal in Preston 481 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,760 was the Mayor, Harry Cartmell. 482 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:11,000 According to the law, anyone doing essential work was excused. 483 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:14,080 But what exactly was essential? 484 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:20,160 The Preston tribunal heard an application from a man 485 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,480 who gave his occupation as tripe dresser. 486 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:28,240 The man told Mayor Cartmell that he supposed the tribunal would accept 487 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:31,560 that tripe, and pig's trotters and cow's heels, 488 00:36:31,560 --> 00:36:33,640 were items of food. 489 00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:37,400 The Mayor nodded. "We go for that, certainly," he said. 490 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:42,160 The man went on - "In fact, they're essential foods." 491 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:44,880 The Mayor wouldn't have any of that, though. 492 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:46,920 The man protested. 493 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:51,720 "But tripe and onions is a most useful dish," he said. 494 00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:54,680 "Delicious, I am told," said the Mayor, 495 00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:56,520 "but hardly essential." 496 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:01,680 The tripe dresser was sent off to war. 497 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:05,200 But tribunal verdicts varied widely. 498 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:08,680 The men who looked after the horses of the Atherstone Hunt 499 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:13,040 were exempted because the country needed a good supply of horses. 500 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:18,440 Men who staffed bathing huts in one seaside town were exempted 501 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:21,960 because they were said to promote public health. 502 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:27,040 Corset makers claimed that "Ladies must have corsets." 503 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:30,800 "The Army must have men," came the reply. 504 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:35,280 There were some heart-breaking cases too. 505 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:38,560 A widow appeared before one committee to argue that her 506 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,760 11th son should be exempted. 507 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:44,360 Of the ten elder brothers, 508 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:46,800 five had already been wounded, 509 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:49,320 two were prisoners in Germany, 510 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:51,880 and one a prisoner in Turkey. 511 00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:53,680 The request was granted. 512 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,200 About a third of the men who asked not to serve 513 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:04,640 were granted exemption, if only for a few months. 514 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:11,120 But there were some - around 16,000 in all - 515 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,840 who claimed that any kind of killing was wrong, 516 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:16,920 and they simply refused to serve. 517 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,200 Conscientious objectors - or 'conchies', 518 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:25,560 as they were mockingly called - weren't exactly popular. 519 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:29,440 Angry mobs raided their meetings. 520 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,200 They were accused of being soft on the Hun. 521 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:38,000 They were routinely ridiculed in the press. 522 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,360 Some of the conscientious objectors got pretty short shrift. 523 00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,800 "You are a coward and a cad," one was told, 524 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,720 "nothing but a shivering mass of unwholesome fat!" 525 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:01,920 But it seems to me remarkable that a country which considered 526 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:06,040 itself in the grips of a struggle for national survival 527 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,080 nonetheless allowed individual citizens to decide 528 00:39:09,080 --> 00:39:11,560 whether they could reconcile that struggle 529 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,080 with their personal conscience. 530 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,280 It didn't happen elsewhere in Europe. 531 00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:24,040 The authorities were faced with a new question - 532 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:28,200 what should be done with men who refused point-blank 533 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:30,720 to have anything to do with the war effort? 534 00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:35,680 The answers were often confused, even chaotic. 535 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:42,160 In the spring of 1916, 536 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:44,360 a group of objectors was brought here, 537 00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,440 to the medieval castle in Richmond. 538 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:53,440 Among them, was Norman Gaudie - 539 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:55,360 a young railway worker 540 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:59,160 and a forward with Sunderland Football Club reserves. 541 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,360 The group, who became known as the Richmond Sixteen, 542 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:11,040 included a member of the Church of England, Quakers, 543 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:14,720 Jehovah's Witnesses, a Methodist and a Baptist. 544 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:20,440 For several months, Gaudie and the rest of the Sixteen 545 00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,240 were imprisoned in the castle. 546 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,080 Some objectors were prepared to go to the front 547 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:29,520 as ambulance drivers or labourers. 548 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:33,000 Gaudie and his companions were absolutists - 549 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,240 they refused absolutely 550 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:37,400 to have anything to do with war. 551 00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:44,000 The cells still bear the evidence of their time here. 552 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,240 The story of Gaudie's arrival at the castle is remembered 553 00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:51,920 by his daughter-in-law. 554 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,280 When he first came here, 555 00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,640 it took eight soldiers 556 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,520 to try and get his uniform on 557 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:05,440 because he was a great sportsman. It was... 558 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,640 They were trying to get the uniform on him? Yes. 559 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,560 It was only his friend who said to him, 560 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:13,320 "Well, that wasn't a very pacifist thing for you to do." 561 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,800 Do you know why he was such a vehement pacifist? 562 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:21,480 Because of his connection with the Church, 563 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:26,880 and he believed that the message of Jesus was not to kill 564 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,360 and to be friendly, to love one another. 565 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,680 But if I said to you he was just being awkward? 566 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:37,080 No, he really, genuinely believed 567 00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:43,560 that it was absolutely wrong to kill another fellow human being. 568 00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:48,440 And... What, even if it came at the price of your country being invaded? 569 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:54,040 At any price. He... That's how he felt. 570 00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:58,080 And this seems to be a picture on the wall of his mother. 571 00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:02,200 "N Gaudie's mother," it says here. Yes, yes, yes. 572 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:04,120 It's quite a good likeness, really. 573 00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:05,760 Is it? Yes. 574 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:10,480 His mother had sewn a little pocket 575 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,400 on his vest and put the photograph in it, 576 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:17,320 and that's how he came to have the photograph 577 00:42:17,320 --> 00:42:19,440 of his mother with him. 578 00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:23,200 And it's amazing how clear it still is, really. It is, isn't it? 579 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:25,080 100 years on, nearly. 580 00:42:31,240 --> 00:42:35,360 But the Richmond Sixteen were yet to face their ultimate test. 581 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:40,440 They were ordered to France. 582 00:42:44,720 --> 00:42:49,240 Here, once again, they refused absolutely to serve in any way. 583 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:55,080 But now they were under military discipline, 584 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:59,240 and the punishment for refusing to fight was death. 585 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,160 On a June morning, the men were marched onto a parade ground 586 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:09,840 in front of hundreds of troops. 587 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,360 They were led to a raised platform 588 00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:17,960 and there, their sentences were read out to the assembled soldiers. 589 00:43:17,960 --> 00:43:23,800 "The sentence of the court is to suffer death by being shot." 590 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,040 There was a pause. 591 00:43:27,040 --> 00:43:30,120 "Confirmed by the Commander in Chief." 592 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,360 There was another pause. 593 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,920 "Commuted to penal servitude for ten years." 594 00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:43,120 It was a reprieve, but it was a reprieve most cruelly delivered. 595 00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:53,280 When it came to it, shooting men for sticking to their principles 596 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:56,200 was a step too far for the Government. 597 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:06,120 Instead, absolutist objectors served out much of the rest of the war 598 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:08,360 in British jails. 599 00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,520 To be honest, the extreme conscientious objectors 600 00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:19,760 have always struck me as cranks. 601 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:23,360 The war was dreadful and it was bloody, 602 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:27,040 but unless Britain was prepared to see the rest of Europe 603 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:32,400 turned into some enormous German colony, it had to be fought. 604 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:34,760 And most British people saw that. 605 00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:40,800 One by one, the great majority of those who needed persuading 606 00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:44,440 had fallen into line to give their support for the war. 607 00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:53,600 With few exceptions, the people of Britain saw the war as a just cause 608 00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:56,120 and necessary for national survival. 609 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:07,840 But the most bitter resistance to the conflict was still to come. 610 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:09,760 There was one part of the realm 611 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:14,960 where the war would unleash opposition, bloodshed and death, 612 00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,960 and change the course of a nation's history. 613 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:30,120 In April 1916, much of the city of Dublin was reduced to ruins. 614 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:36,680 Not by German bombs, but as the result of fighting 615 00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:40,160 between two forces supposedly on the same side - 616 00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:44,360 the soldiers of Britain and Irish citizens. 617 00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:51,480 Ireland in 1916 was part of the United Kingdom. 618 00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,600 But many Irish people believed they had been living for generations 619 00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,440 under foreign occupation. 620 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,320 Their watchword was that England's difficulty 621 00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:04,400 was Ireland's opportunity. 622 00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:10,120 Rebel leaders such as James Connolly 623 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:12,800 were prepared to turn to Germany for weapons. 624 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,120 The revolution started here. 625 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:27,280 On Easter Monday 1916, Connolly led a group of armed rebels 626 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:31,600 as they seized the General Post Office, symbol of colonial power. 627 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:37,600 Within hours, they had proclaimed the birth of the Irish Republic. 628 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:44,200 British troops surrounded the building and prepared for a siege. 629 00:46:47,720 --> 00:46:50,360 On Wednesday, there was the sound of shelling, 630 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:53,520 because the British had brought a gunboat up the Liffey. 631 00:46:53,520 --> 00:46:55,440 On Thursday, machine guns opened up 632 00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:58,040 and James Connolly was hit in the ankle. 633 00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:03,080 And then, on Friday, incendiary shells struck the building. 634 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:09,240 With the Post Office in ruins, 635 00:47:09,240 --> 00:47:10,960 the rebels surrendered. 636 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:17,080 What became known as the Easter Rising had been crushed. 637 00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:21,480 Connolly and the other leaders were brought 638 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,720 to Kilmainham Gaol, in Dublin. 639 00:47:24,720 --> 00:47:26,600 For the British authorities, 640 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,480 the rebels were simply traitors in time of war. 641 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,640 15 of them were executed by firing squad. 642 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,720 GUNFIRE 643 00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:41,160 Mass arrests followed of anyone 644 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:43,520 suspected of being a rebel sympathiser. 645 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:50,520 2,500 Irish people were sent to internment camps. 646 00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:56,920 Reaction in Ireland was outraged, 647 00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:02,480 and the executed nationalists became martyrs in the cause of freedom. 648 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:11,480 The Easter Rising had been a hopeless, scatterbrained failure. 649 00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:15,280 But the British response - the executions, the mass arrests, 650 00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:20,080 the internment without trial - had turned failure into triumph. 651 00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:23,160 James Connolly and his comrades had been amateurish 652 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:25,240 and passionate and doomed, 653 00:48:25,240 --> 00:48:27,000 but they had made the cause 654 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:30,320 of Irish freedom from British rule unstoppable. 655 00:48:36,040 --> 00:48:40,600 The executed rebels were buried in a British military prison cemetery, 656 00:48:40,600 --> 00:48:44,680 now venerated as a national monument in independent Ireland. 657 00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:49,360 So Connolly's buried here? Connolly's here. 658 00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,280 'The grandson of one of the leaders 659 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,080 'testifies to their enduring influence.' 660 00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:57,800 The first week of the Rising was a failure, 661 00:48:57,800 --> 00:49:00,200 but it was a significant political success, 662 00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:04,800 so there's no harm in losing the battle if you win the war. 663 00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:07,040 And if I were to say that your ancestors, 664 00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:08,680 including your grandfather, 665 00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:12,040 were effectively on the side of the Germans, what would you say? 666 00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:14,720 I'd say that nothing could be further from the truth. 667 00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:18,800 The Irish people were on the side of the independence of this country. 668 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:22,920 They had to, obviously, get arms from somewhere 669 00:49:22,920 --> 00:49:25,960 and the only people willing to give them arms were the Germans. 670 00:49:25,960 --> 00:49:28,560 Do you think it's an exaggeration then to say 671 00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:32,120 that the First World War MADE Ireland independent? 672 00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,560 I think it's fair to say that the circumstances warranted a response 673 00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:37,880 of the British to the Rising. 674 00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:42,360 It did precipitate the independent Ireland we have today. 675 00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:54,360 At the start of the war, Lloyd George had almost despaired 676 00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:58,000 of what he had called his "undisciplined nation". 677 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,520 But by the summer of 1916, all that had changed. 678 00:50:08,240 --> 00:50:11,640 Britain had become a machine for waging war. 679 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:16,880 Every factory and farm, every able-bodied man, 680 00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:18,680 and millions of women too, 681 00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:23,400 had been drawn into a titanic struggle to win the conflict. 682 00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:26,840 But would it be enough? 683 00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:29,360 The nation was about to find out. 684 00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:40,800 July 1916. 685 00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:45,960 The rolling landscape around the River Somme in northern France. 686 00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,240 Here, Allied generals planned an attack 687 00:50:51,240 --> 00:50:54,160 they hoped would decide the outcome of the war. 688 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:57,000 MILITARY DRUMS 689 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,000 Through May and June, 690 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:08,920 some three-quarters of a million Allied soldiers 691 00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:11,800 gathered in preparation for an offensive, 692 00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:15,080 massive in scale and ruthless in execution, 693 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:18,440 to end the stagnation of trench warfare. 694 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:24,240 Key to the plan was the destruction of German defences 695 00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:27,520 before Allied troops even left their trenches. 696 00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:37,800 On June 24th 1916, 697 00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:41,440 the order was given to unleash the greatest artillery bombardment 698 00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:43,400 the world had ever seen. 699 00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:58,440 This was war on an industrial scale. 700 00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,840 Seven days and seven nights of bombardment 701 00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:06,360 in which a million-and-a-half shells poured down on the Germans, 702 00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:10,560 an apocalypse so violent it could be heard miles away, 703 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:14,000 across the Channel, in the English Home Counties. 704 00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:24,080 But it wasn't over yet. 705 00:52:24,080 --> 00:52:27,640 The climax of the bombardment was still to come. 706 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,400 Two minutes before the attack was set to begin, 707 00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,440 there was one of the biggest man-made explosions 708 00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:37,760 in the history of the world. 709 00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:40,160 This is the result. 710 00:52:40,160 --> 00:52:43,320 The British had spent six months tunnelling 711 00:52:43,320 --> 00:52:45,360 beneath the German fortifications 712 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:49,320 and now, at 7.28 on 1st July, 713 00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:53,560 they detonated 30 tons of explosives. 714 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:58,400 The debris flew 4,000 feet into the air. 715 00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:13,600 The generals were confident little could have survived the assault. 716 00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:17,560 So confident, in fact, that there had been jokes 717 00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:20,880 that all the troops would need to carry across no-man's-land 718 00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:22,760 were their umbrellas. 719 00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:34,920 At dawn, on July 1st, the men were assembled 720 00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:38,920 ready to clamber out of the trenches and go over the top. 721 00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:42,080 Most of them were volunteers from Kitchener's Army, 722 00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:45,640 including many from the so-called Pals battalions. 723 00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:48,760 It was a glorious summer's day. 724 00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,120 BIRDSONG 725 00:53:54,280 --> 00:53:58,040 At 7.30, whistles blew along the whole of the front. 726 00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:00,960 WHISTLES BLOW 727 00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:04,560 A football was kicked in the direction of the German trenches. 728 00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:10,320 The Battle of the Somme was about to begin. 729 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:13,680 GUNFIRE 730 00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:20,640 Wave after wave of soldiers marched towards the German trenches. 731 00:54:23,640 --> 00:54:26,800 Among them were the 16th Battalion of the Royal Scots, 732 00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:29,240 known as the McCraes - 733 00:54:29,240 --> 00:54:32,040 a Pals battalion formed round the players and fans 734 00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:34,760 of Heart of Midlothian Football Club. 735 00:54:36,720 --> 00:54:40,960 But what met them was not what they had been told to expect. 736 00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:46,680 As the football fans marched on, 737 00:54:46,680 --> 00:54:48,960 German guns took a terrible toll. 738 00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:55,440 Thousands of British shells had failed to explode. 739 00:54:55,440 --> 00:54:57,920 The enemy wire had barely been cut. 740 00:55:00,040 --> 00:55:04,080 The Germans had had months to build their defences. 741 00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:05,800 Their dugouts were deep, 742 00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:07,720 many reinforced with concrete, 743 00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:11,560 and a week of shelling had caused only partial damage. 744 00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:17,160 As the day wore on, 745 00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:22,920 the hope for decisive victory turned into decided disaster. 746 00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:28,520 McCrae's Battalion came on steadily and bravely up the hill 747 00:55:28,520 --> 00:55:30,040 and then, to their horror, 748 00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,000 a German machine gun opened up on them from the side. 749 00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:36,680 They fell in great numbers. 750 00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:40,600 One survivor recalled the shock of seeing men he had looked up to 751 00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:43,280 cut down in front of him. 752 00:55:43,280 --> 00:55:45,760 His company sergeant major took a bullet, 753 00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:49,400 fell to his knees and his last words were, 754 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:51,640 "Be brave, my boys." 755 00:55:51,640 --> 00:55:53,560 Then he fell forward, dead. 756 00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:04,920 Andy Ramage, who was a printer, 757 00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:09,760 had this photo taken of himself with his pal Frank Weston, a student. 758 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:14,320 Ramage was hit in the throat by flying shrapnel. 759 00:56:16,640 --> 00:56:21,920 Weston was shot as he pulled him into a shell hole to protect him. 760 00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:31,000 810 members of McCrae's Battalion went over the top that day. 761 00:56:32,720 --> 00:56:36,920 576 were either killed or wounded. 762 00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:42,760 By the end of that first day, 763 00:56:42,760 --> 00:56:49,960 the British Army had suffered a total 57,470 casualties. 764 00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,080 A little ground had been taken, 765 00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,440 but there had been no breakthrough. 766 00:56:56,440 --> 00:57:00,000 It was the bloodiest day in the history of British warfare. 767 00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:19,560 The Somme offensive dragged on for months. 768 00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:21,640 It did eventually yield some gains, 769 00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:25,120 but they were bought at tremendous cost, 770 00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,960 and the whole thing raised really troubling questions. 771 00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,560 Were Britain's generals up to it? 772 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,520 Were Britain's soldiers? 773 00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:38,120 Could the country cope with losses on this sort of scale? 774 00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:40,400 And bleakest of all - 775 00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:42,560 how much longer was it going to go on? 776 00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:57,080 Next time - 777 00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:00,600 German U-boats try to starve Britain into submission... 778 00:58:02,440 --> 00:58:06,040 ..an alleged pacifist plot to murder Lloyd George 779 00:58:06,040 --> 00:58:08,680 lands this Derby family in prison, 780 00:58:08,680 --> 00:58:14,320 and the state intervenes to police the sex lives of British citizens.