The Great War: The People's Story

Episode 2 (1x2)

Air date: Aug 17, 2014

With half his jaw blown away Reg undergoes reconstructive surgery from pioneering doctor Harold Gillies, writing to his mother that he is now uglier than ever. Reg will go through the war, winning a distinguished conduct medal, marrying and surviving until 1943. Alan Lloyd is less fortunate for whilst he gets home leave to see his new born son in 1915 the next year he will be killed at the battle of the Somme, being awarded a posthumous Military Cross. On the home front Hallie Miles, a vegetarian restaurateur ,ironically derives a positive from the war as meat rationing drives people towards her vegetarian recipes. Hallie notes the daily exoduses from London as troop trains carry youngsters to the slaughter, as does actress Kate Parry Frye, a committed suffragette who has eschewed militarism for the war effort, making uniforms. Kate will marry Somme survivor John Collins and will carry on the diary she began three years before war broke out until 1958, passing way a year later.