The End of a World: 1910's (Looking Back at Britain)

Britain began the decade with all the confidence of a nation that ruled the world. And in that vein Sir Robert Falcon Scott set off to explore one of the few regions still untouched by human footsteps - Antarctica. Although Scott did not return, the photographs brought back of that bleak and hostile place remain among the most beautiful images ever taken. In 1913 Emily Davison died when she stepped in front of the King's horse in the Epsom Derby, but the Suffragettes called a truce with the start of war: patriotic duty came before civil rights, and as men flocked to fight, women were needed to fill the gaps at home - in factories, on buses, as nurses. Edwardian self-confidence would be shattered by the Great War, as modern war technology met out-moded battle tactics and a generation of young men fought and died. By the end, virtually every family missed a son, a husband or sweetheart. Britannia emerged still ruling the waves, but would struggle to provide a land fit for its returned heroes.