The series covers events including the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the Battle of Amiens and the Armistice in 1918, the Russian Revolution and the Spanish flu epidemic; on the domestic front there is a serious shortage of able-bodied men for home front jobs. There is also the appointment of David Lloyd George (whom the Dowager Countess despises) as Prime Minister and his creation of the wartime coalition. Matthew Crawley and Thomas Barrow are off fighting in the war; Tom Branson, an Irishman, is unsure that he wants to fight for Britain; and Robert Crawley cannot serve due to his age. Sybil Crawley defies her aristocratic position and joins the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse.