World War One
World War I, often known as the First World War and referred to as the "Great War" or the "War to End All Wars" by certain Anglophone authors, was a worldwide struggle that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and is regarded as one of the bloodiest conflicts in history. Much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire were involved in the conflict, which raged over Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and portions of Asia. An estimated 9 million troops were killed in combat, with another 23 million injured, while 5 million civilians were murdered as a consequence of military action, famine, and illness.
The first season of Downton Abbey begins with a telegraph carrying historic news and concludes similarly. After Archduke Franz Ferdinand is killed, rumors of a European war begin to circulate among the characters. At a garden party, Lord Grantham gets a hand-delivered telegram informing him that the United Kingdom has declared war on Germany. The year is 1914, and the date is August 4, 1914.
The second season opens with a title card that reads "The Somme, 1916." The Battle of the Somme was one of the most major conflicts of WWI, with over one million combatants dead on that one day, including approximately 125,000 British soldiers. On the Western Front, Matthew Crawley is pictured fighting. During the war, several British nobility served, including future King Edward VIII. Back at the Abbey, the kind Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) persuades Robert (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora (Elizabeth McGovern) to convert the estate into a convalescent center. Many rural mansions did welcome injured soldiers throughout WWI.
