0:00:03 > 0:00:07Just over a century ago, the motion camera was invented
0:00:07 > 0:00:11and changed forever the way we recall our history.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13For the first time, we could see life
0:00:13 > 0:00:16through the eyes of ordinary people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24Across this series we'll bring these rare archive films back to life
0:00:24 > 0:00:26with the help of our vintage mobile cinema.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32We'll be inviting people with a story to tell
0:00:32 > 0:00:37to step on board and relive moments they thought were gone forever.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They'll see their relatives on screen for the first time,
0:00:43 > 0:00:46come face to face with their younger selves
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and celebrate our amazing 20th-century past.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53This is the people's story -
0:00:53 > 0:00:54our story.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Our vintage mobile cinema was originally commissioned in 1967
0:01:24 > 0:01:26to show training films to workers.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Today, it's been lovingly restored and loaded up with remarkable film footage,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34preserved for us by the British Film Institute
0:01:34 > 0:01:37and other national and regional film archives.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40In this series, we'll be travelling to towns and cities
0:01:40 > 0:01:44across the country and showing films from the 20th century
0:01:44 > 0:01:47that give us the "reel" history of Britain.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53Today, we're pulling up in 1914 to hear about the Pals Brigades -
0:01:53 > 0:01:56groups of friends who joined up together
0:01:56 > 0:01:59to fight for King and country in the Great War.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02MUSIC: "It's A Long Way To Tipperary"
0:02:17 > 0:02:22Today we're at the Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum and Barracks in Preston
0:02:22 > 0:02:26and our films today are about the thousands of young men,
0:02:26 > 0:02:27often teenagers,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31who volunteered at the outset of the First World War.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38Coming up, the sacrifice made by a Lancashire town.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44I just think, what a waste. What a waste of a whole generation.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Recollections of the news no-one wanted to receive.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52This is the diary that was kept by my grandfather
0:02:52 > 0:02:56and there's an entry about Don's death.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59"Too upset to work."
0:02:59 > 0:03:01And stories of great heroism.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06He took a troop of soldiers into no-man's-land
0:03:06 > 0:03:09and he brought them all back again safely.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Today, we'll be showing films about the young men
0:03:18 > 0:03:20who went into the First World War.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Who, in the words of a later inscription,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26"gave their today, so that we could have our tomorrow."
0:03:27 > 0:03:32The barracks here in Preston were built in 1848
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and throughout the First World War received and equipped
0:03:35 > 0:03:38thousands of infantry recruits from East Lancashire.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46When war broke out in 1914,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50the British Army was massively outnumbered by its German enemy.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55More troops were urgently needed.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57The man put in charge of finding them
0:03:57 > 0:03:59was Field Marshall Lord Kitchener.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02His solution was the Pals Battalions.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Workmates, neighbours, brothers were all encouraged to join up together.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12The message was as simple as it was powerful, "Your Country Needs You."
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Kitchener called for 100,000 volunteers, but within a month,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23half a million men from across the United Kingdom
0:04:23 > 0:04:25had answered the call.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32As a shortcut to creating tight-knit fighting units,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35the Pals Battalions were a huge success,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40but this new method of recruitment would also carry a terrible cost.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47My guests today have come from all over the country to share with us
0:04:47 > 0:04:51their stories of the men who fought in the First World War.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Some of them will be seeing the films we are about to screen for the very first time.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00They'll be showing us photos of their loved ones
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and telling stories of the most extraordinary heroism.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Rita Humphrey has travelled from Maidstone in Kent
0:05:08 > 0:05:13to tell us about her remarkable great-uncle, Walter Tull.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Walter was a top footballer with Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20When war was declared,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23he immediately offered his services to the British Army
0:05:23 > 0:05:26and, like many other professional players,
0:05:26 > 0:05:28joined the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31known as the Footballers' Battalion.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34- Now, you're here to talk about your great uncle?- Yes.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36What sort of man was he?
0:05:36 > 0:05:39He was the first British,
0:05:39 > 0:05:44coloured British officer in the, er, in the British army,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49but he wasn't recognised with the medals and things he should have had
0:05:49 > 0:05:51because he was black
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and they didn't think that black people should
0:05:55 > 0:05:57have medals or anything like that.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59So, er, we're still fighting now
0:05:59 > 0:06:02to try and get, I think, the Victory medal.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Rita's about to see a film commissioned by the War Office
0:06:07 > 0:06:11recorded during the Battle of the Somme in 1916,
0:06:11 > 0:06:13where her Great-Uncle Walter fought.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25What feelings will it stir of the uncle her whole family was so proud of?
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Made me feel really, sort of, all tight inside,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34very upset to think that, you know,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38people had to go through those sort of things, you know.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41It just brings it all back to you.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44What they had to go through, I think was absolutely terrible, I really do.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Walter Tull, Rita's great-uncle,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53was the first black professional outfield footballer in Britain
0:06:53 > 0:06:55when he answered Lord Kitchener's call
0:06:55 > 0:06:58and joined the Footballers' Regiment.
0:06:58 > 0:06:59He'd not had an easy life.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06'He started off in the orphanage and became a good footballer
0:07:06 > 0:07:10'and then Tottenham Hotspur signed him up.'
0:07:10 > 0:07:15He joined the Footballers' Regiment, which was the Fourth Middlesex.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17'He went through...
0:07:17 > 0:07:21'hell, I should say, because he was black.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25'Apparently, black men in those days couldn't have a commission,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29'but he went from sergeant...
0:07:29 > 0:07:32'up to second lieutenant.'
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Remarkably, through his dedication on the battlefield,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Walter Tull became the first black officer in the British Army in 1917.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42He was 29-years-old.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44One year later,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47in 1918, just a few months before the war ended,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Walter found himself back at the Somme
0:07:50 > 0:07:53as the German spring offensive got underway.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55He always put his men first.
0:07:55 > 0:08:02He took a...a troop of soldiers out across into no-man's-land
0:08:02 > 0:08:06and he brought them all back again safely.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11But then, the second time, when, er, he had to go out,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15he took the men, always...always in the front line, he never was behind,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18and, er, he got shot.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23Walter's loyal troops didn't want to leave him in no-man's-land.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28Some of his men tried to get him back
0:08:28 > 0:08:30because they were all so very fond of him,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34but unfortunately, because of the German machine guns,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36they couldn't get him back.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Walter was only 29 when he died in 1918.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44His career as a soldier was a distinguished one,
0:08:44 > 0:08:46but, like so many of the other soldiers,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49his body was never recovered.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52'He was a just a humble young man who was doing his duty.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:56I mean, he was just one young man amongst millions.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00'It was very sad.'
0:09:05 > 0:09:07Here on Reel History today,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11we're at the Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum and Barracks
0:09:11 > 0:09:14in Preston to hear remarkable stories
0:09:14 > 0:09:19of the brave men who fought for our country in the First World War.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25Julian Farrance is a military expert from the National Army Museum in London.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28He's come along to explain why friends and colleagues
0:09:28 > 0:09:32were persuaded to join up together in the so-called Pals Battalions.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34'Well, the Pals Battalions
0:09:34 > 0:09:36'were originally brought up as a recruiting tool'
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and one of the ways that they tried to do that
0:09:39 > 0:09:41was to bring in this idea of associations,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44people being able to recruit with their friends
0:09:44 > 0:09:47because obviously joining the army is a bit of a daunting idea.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50It's a big institution that you've got no idea about,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52so if you're able to join with your friends,
0:09:52 > 0:09:56you've got your social hierarchies worked out. That works well.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57The works officer and manager
0:09:57 > 0:10:00is going to be the officer of the Battalion
0:10:00 > 0:10:02and then you'll have the foremen will be the NCOs
0:10:02 > 0:10:05and then the ordinary factory workers will be the soldiers.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08'How effective were these Pals armies thought to be?'
0:10:08 > 0:10:11'Because of their "unit cohesion", to use a modern phrase,'
0:10:11 > 0:10:13the fact that they are...
0:10:13 > 0:10:16they have very strong relationships within the Battalion,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20they are an extremely effective fighting force.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23But the Pals Battalions experiment proved disastrous.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26When single battles brought heavy casualties,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29whole communities of men were wiped out.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31For the families of the Pals
0:10:31 > 0:10:33who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36it was a catastrophe.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39If you've got all of your recruits coming from one location
0:10:39 > 0:10:43and they go into action and they sustain heavy casualties,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45entire communities of young men can be wiped out
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and that's exactly what happens on the 1st July 1916
0:10:48 > 0:10:52in places like Hull and Liverpool and Manchester
0:10:52 > 0:10:54and Lancaster and Accrington.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57Entire streets blacked out with crepe and bombazine
0:10:57 > 0:11:01because all of the young guys had been either badly injured or killed.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10It's estimated that over 700,000 British men lost their lives
0:11:10 > 0:11:12during the Great War.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16I can hardly imagine how devastating these losses must've been,
0:11:16 > 0:11:18right across the country
0:11:18 > 0:11:21and for local communities, like this one here in Lancashire.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Accrington was one of the smallest towns in England
0:11:24 > 0:11:28to raise a Pals Battalion for the First World War
0:11:28 > 0:11:31and after the first day of the Somme, after 20 minutes,
0:11:31 > 0:11:35virtually every family in the area was deeply affected.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42More than 700 Accrington men went over the top that day,
0:11:42 > 0:11:46but only 136 returned, able to fight on.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Les Bond's uncle Harry
0:11:50 > 0:11:53was one of the men who signed up for the Accrington Pals.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55He's brought memorabilia along
0:11:55 > 0:11:57to show me what men like his uncle were up against
0:11:57 > 0:11:59when they got to France.
0:12:01 > 0:12:07The original qualifications to join, to join up, was five foot six.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Some of them didn't get in because they weren't five foot six,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14so they reduced the height qualification to five foot three.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Now I'm five foot seven,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20so if I'm five foot three, me rifle is bigger than me.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26On the 1st July, they had to go across no-man's-land with,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29well, all the time, they had the full kit,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32which weighed about 66 lbs, plus this
0:12:32 > 0:12:38and on the 1st July, they were carrying a pick or a shovel at the same time,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42to dig what they thought was going to be the German front trenches out,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45which obviously wasn't the case.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Cos the Germans were dug in so deeply and the artillery hadn't got to them.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Les has researched the Pals' exploits in the war.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56At the end of June 1916,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59the battalion reached the banks of the River Somme in France
0:12:59 > 0:13:05and prepared for what would become the largest and bloodiest battle of the First World War.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10'The night before the main battle, before the big push,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14'they had to do a forced march, which was six miles, really,'
0:13:14 > 0:13:18but it took them ten hours to do it
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and they arrived in the frontline trenches
0:13:21 > 0:13:22at four o'clock in the morning.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26This incredible film
0:13:26 > 0:13:29was shot by two official government cinematographers -
0:13:29 > 0:13:32Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34Released in August 1916,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37it's taken from a famous propaganda film about the Somme,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39seen by millions across the world.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Just after dawn on the 1st July 1916,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47the Accrington Pals were sent over the top.
0:13:49 > 0:13:55They went over at 7.20, the first wave, as the bombardment ceased.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59The first wave got up and walked into no-man's-land
0:13:59 > 0:14:03and then at half past, the officers blew whistles
0:14:03 > 0:14:07and the third and fourth wave came out of the trenches
0:14:07 > 0:14:10and they walked across.
0:14:10 > 0:14:15Now the Germans, knowing that the bombardment had ceased,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18stuck their heads out of their fox holes
0:14:18 > 0:14:19and to their amazement,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23see these line of men just walking towards them.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30There was that much smoke in the first few minutes
0:14:30 > 0:14:33that they couldn't see each other
0:14:33 > 0:14:35and the General, Hunter Weston,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40who was in charge of that part of the battle,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42he said not one man turned back,
0:14:42 > 0:14:47despite this tremendous scything down of the lads around them.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55720 men went over the top that July morning
0:14:55 > 0:15:00and over 580 were either killed, wounded or missing in action.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07When the news reached Accrington, every home drew its curtains
0:15:07 > 0:15:11and the town's church bells tolled non-stop.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16Virtually every family had lost a father, a son, a husband.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21The Battle of the Somme dragged on for 20 weeks
0:15:21 > 0:15:26and claimed the lives of 108,000 British soldiers.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30Les's research has brought him to a stark conclusion
0:15:30 > 0:15:32about the decisions made in 1916.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37I just think, what a waste.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40What a waste of a whole generation
0:15:40 > 0:15:45because after they'd got the numbers for the 11th Battalion,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47for the East Lancs,
0:15:47 > 0:15:51the county, literally, was stripped of young men.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54A whole generation left the county.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06All day, our vintage mobile cinema
0:16:06 > 0:16:10has been screening rarely-seen footage of the First World War.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13Our specially invited audience
0:16:13 > 0:16:16have been sharing their family stories of the Great War.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18Just seems completely unjust.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Vanda Isherwood's grandfather William Lowther
0:16:21 > 0:16:25signed up for the Accrington Pals Brigade along with his two brothers.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31Vanda's grandmother voiced reservations about the mass sign up.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36She thought how silly Grandfather was to enlist.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38He was a collier.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41He wasn't a very young man, I think he was 33 when he died,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45but she thought how foolish to enlist
0:16:45 > 0:16:47when you had a wife and a young family,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50but I since believe that...
0:16:50 > 0:16:53they could've been ostracised if they didn't join,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57or they were very short of employment and it was attractive.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01There would be regular money coming in and meals.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05All three brothers lost their lives.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11Vanda's about to see harrowing footage of the Somme
0:17:11 > 0:17:16and explain to us the tragic events her grandfather endured
0:17:16 > 0:17:18on the opening day of battle.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37'He had a brother who joined earlier
0:17:37 > 0:17:41'and he was killed the year before, in Gallipoli.
0:17:42 > 0:17:49'And then on the 1st July, when my grandfather was killed,'
0:17:49 > 0:17:52he had another brother killed the same day
0:17:52 > 0:17:55and apparently not very far away
0:17:55 > 0:17:59from where my grandfather was on the Somme.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05The loss for women back home was immeasurable.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09The death of Vanda's grandfather left her grandmother widowed
0:18:09 > 0:18:11and her mother fatherless.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14They moved to Manchester to try and start a new life alone.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18With the dreadful...
0:18:18 > 0:18:23trauma they'd gone through, they then had to rebuild their lives,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25which wasn't made easy for them.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30So, it is a real tribute that they managed to build new lives
0:18:30 > 0:18:36for themselves and their families, but it was at a great price, really.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41It must have been tremendously difficult and hard work for them,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45that hadn't been on the cards when they were first young...
0:18:45 > 0:18:46married women.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Hundreds of men from towns across East Lancashire
0:18:51 > 0:18:53joined the Accrington Pals.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Their stories are now mainly re-told by grandchildren
0:18:56 > 0:18:57and great grandchildren,
0:18:57 > 0:19:02but here with us today is Veronica Abbott
0:19:02 > 0:19:05with a story about her father, Thomas Leach,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09one of a group who joined from Chorley in Lancashire.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Veronica's never seen film of the Accrington Pals before.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16This newsreel from 1915
0:19:16 > 0:19:20shows the Battalion leaving their training site on Salisbury Plain
0:19:20 > 0:19:23to see active service.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27My father was at a seminary at Ushaw, which is over in Yorkshire.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29He was training to be a priest.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32I presume he came home, er...
0:19:32 > 0:19:35for the...summer holidays
0:19:35 > 0:19:39at the time when all the furore was being whipped up.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42You know, sort of, "Your Country Needs You,"
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and obviously volunteered.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Ironically, once Veronica's father was in the army,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50he was trained as a marksman.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55'To actually be a marksman and have to kill,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58'to a man who was going to be a priest,
0:19:58 > 0:20:03'had to have been incredibly difficult for him.'
0:20:03 > 0:20:06The shock of what Veronica's father witnessed
0:20:06 > 0:20:09saw his life after the war take a completely different path
0:20:09 > 0:20:12to the one he had planned before he volunteered.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16He never went back to the seminary.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21I presume that what he experienced had been...
0:20:21 > 0:20:24too great for him to really cope with.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Like so many of his generation, Veronica's father wouldn't,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31or couldn't, talk about his time in the army.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34'My mother would say he would go very quiet.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37'Possibly go and sit in another room.'
0:20:37 > 0:20:43He did a beautiful tapestry of a crinoline lady, um...
0:20:43 > 0:20:46which wasn't a thing that a Victorian man would normally have done.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49You know, sort of, all the intricate stitching.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Again, I think it was presumably to take his mind off. I don't know.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56I didn't know him in his heyday.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I'm the youngster of a very large family.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02By the time I was really taking notice,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05he was already crippled with rheumatoid arthritis.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07To me, he was a lovely father.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10You know, you can't really say anything more than that.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Today we're at the Queen's Lancashire Regiment Museum and Barracks in Preston,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26hearing First World War stories.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32With some dramatic archive footage from the front line,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36we can bear witness to the horrific conditions in the trenches
0:21:36 > 0:21:38endured by the battalions of soldiers,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41often friends, sometimes brothers.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48Richard Bell's grandfather, William, joined up along with his brother, Donald.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52William survived, but his brother did not.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Donald Bell received the highest award for valour
0:21:55 > 0:21:58during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02Well, these are replicas of the Victoria Cross
0:22:02 > 0:22:06and other medals awarded to my great-uncle -
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Second Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14He was awarded this for an action that took place on the 5th July
0:22:14 > 0:22:17during the Battle of the Somme.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21He, together with two other soldiers, dashed across no-man's-land
0:22:21 > 0:22:23and put the machine-gun post out of action,
0:22:23 > 0:22:28thus enabling the rest of his regiment to proceed.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Unfortunately, five days later, on the 10th July,
0:22:33 > 0:22:38in an attack on Contalmaison, he sadly lost his life.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Richard's come along to watch our rare footage of the First World War.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55Making these films near the front lines
0:22:55 > 0:22:58were a small number of news correspondents
0:22:58 > 0:23:01working under the authority of the War Office.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03It was dangerous work.
0:23:05 > 0:23:11What memories will these films evoke of Richard's grandfather and his great-uncle,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13who were both willing volunteers?
0:23:15 > 0:23:19In 1914, of course, they had no idea of what they were going to face.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22I suppose they all thought they were going to march off
0:23:22 > 0:23:23and it'd all be over in a few months
0:23:23 > 0:23:26and they'd come home and that'd be it. And, of course, it wasn't.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Donald was one of the thousands of British casualties at the Somme.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36His brother William, Richard's grandfather, was also serving in France
0:23:36 > 0:23:40and made an entry in his diary when he learned of his brother's death.
0:23:42 > 0:23:48'There's an entry... on 19th July.'
0:23:48 > 0:23:50"Telegram about Don's death.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56"Stay on lorry all day. Too upset to work."
0:23:56 > 0:23:58And so that's how he first got to know
0:23:58 > 0:24:01that his younger brother had been killed.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04It always brings a lump to my throat. I feel...
0:24:06 > 0:24:08I feel like they're talking to me.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10And, um...
0:24:15 > 0:24:19..my grandfather never spoke of any of this when I was a small boy.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26And I think that's quite common, that these veterans didn't want to,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29you know, very rarely spoke about what they had been through
0:24:29 > 0:24:34and what they had suffered and what they'd seen, um...
0:24:34 > 0:24:36And they just wanted to keep it inside
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and I suppose to try and forget all about it
0:24:39 > 0:24:43because it must have been horrifying to live through.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45So, having these now,
0:24:45 > 0:24:50it's a very real connection back to those times and, um...
0:24:50 > 0:24:52something means a lot to me.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08It's unbearably sad to think of all these young men,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11friends, brothers and colleagues, who lost their lives.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17I've travelled to the Accrington War Memorial
0:25:17 > 0:25:19in Oak Hill Park, Lancashire.
0:25:19 > 0:25:24First World War memorials like these were the first time in our history
0:25:24 > 0:25:27that ordinary men were remembered by name.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31They're listed in alphabetical order, regardless of rank.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36Les Bond, who I met earlier,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40wrote a poem about one of the Pals with his late brother.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42It seems a fitting way to commemorate the sacrifice
0:25:42 > 0:25:45that these ordinary men made for us.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49In an Accrington pub hangs a picture
0:25:49 > 0:25:52In a frame on a wall or a bar
0:25:52 > 0:25:55It's geet one man's name Tommy Atkins
0:25:55 > 0:25:58And a date, July 1st in Great War...
0:26:02 > 0:26:04..Tommy thowt hard As he traipsed home up lane
0:26:04 > 0:26:06How were he gonna tell wife?
0:26:06 > 0:26:09He'd made a decision to go and enlist
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Aye, even to lay down his life...
0:26:22 > 0:26:25..Tha' looks gradely tough in the uniform, Tom
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Have one with me from top shelf
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Eli, give Tommy a tot and a handshake
0:26:31 > 0:26:32Good luck, Tom
0:26:32 > 0:26:35God bless, good health
0:26:35 > 0:26:40Sarah-Jane was cream-silning her doorstep
0:26:40 > 0:26:42Her Tommy was soon home on leave
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He'd penned a few words fro' somewhere in France
0:26:46 > 0:26:49See thee soon, bonny lass Don't to grieve...
0:27:00 > 0:27:04..She looked at yon telegram And grabbed hold o' kids
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Tears down her cheek getting wetter
0:27:07 > 0:27:10He'd set off all week for ought station
0:27:10 > 0:27:13And come back in a government letter...
0:27:17 > 0:27:20In a Lancashire pub hangs a memory
0:27:20 > 0:27:22In a frame on a wall or a bar
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Donated with Tommy's young widow
0:27:26 > 0:27:29And a date, July 1st, in Great War.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48The idea of appealing to a group of young men,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52a group of pals, to go off together to fight as volunteers in the war
0:27:52 > 0:27:55was thought to be a great idea at the time
0:27:55 > 0:27:58and when they were mown down and whole communities were wiped out,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01the Army was quick to withdraw it
0:28:01 > 0:28:02because it had worked in one way
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and then it was devastating in another.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08But I think why it remains almost more poignant
0:28:08 > 0:28:11than ALL the other terrible things that happened
0:28:11 > 0:28:15was because it was about something deeper than anything else.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17It was about friendship.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Next time on Reel History...
0:28:27 > 0:28:28..we're at Blaenavon in Wales
0:28:28 > 0:28:33to salute the coal miners who slaved underground in the 1930s.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35You had to be down the pit by six
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and you knew you were down there for eight hours.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd