Continuing this from Earlier:
Gwen Dawson, played by Rose Leslie. Starting out as a servant at the abbey,Gwen always aspired for more even though both her Class status and gender were holding her back.During the war she became increasingly involved in organizing the workers at Downton and in the village at large, to agitate for there rights. At first tensions were alright,with the Family being more perplexed than agitated by what was happening (the Butler Mr. Carson was another matter though...) but when things kept getting bad with the economic collapse and hardship of the early 20s,Gwen became more radicalized, especially with Violet(who was more or less running the house at this point and was probably the most out of touch to the demands of her staff or the village) refusing to make concessions to the union, and even hiring a Private investigator to look into Gwen's past to see if there was dirt she could use. The tension burst in the revolution, with Gwen organizing the Staff and the people to form a TUC, and in one of the most defining moment of the show, very firmly informing Mary and Mathew (who had just arrived back home after serving in Egypt.) that the property was going to be distributed out to everyone and that there time was up. A fight ensued,after a shot was fired (weather by the Milita which Mathew had called up to protect the abbey or by the Workers is left ambiguous) and by the end the Abbey was burning and Mathew was left dying on the cobblestone steps. After this, Gwen continued to manage the Downton Union and county, managing Rations well and taking no gruff from anyone because she was a woman. However there were dark spots to, with the energetic Inquisition conducted by Sarah Bunting against "Monarchical Counterrevolutionaries" and Corruption which bit by bit wormed its way even to Downton,despite her best efforts.She is a big favorite among Feminist and Leftist Fans, who view her as a strong Woman, a emblem of what the Union of Britian was and could of been if the rot had not spread too quickly...
Sybil Granthan with her Irish Chaueffer and future husband, Tom Branson In season one. Over the course of the first two seasons, Sybil and Tom grew close to eachother over discussing there politics and aspirations, as well as the more rebellious adventures Sybil with a defining moment coming when Tom comforted Sybil over the death of her Father at the battle of the Somme. Eventually, knowing that the family would disapprove of them getting together,they eloped to Dublin and got married.The story there did not stop, with Tom becoming involved in the Trade Unionist movment and Sybil raising her newborn daugther and worked as a secratary. They eventually had a cautious reaprroachment with the rest of the family, which gained them a Dowery, but Sybil could sense the tension in the air and when news of the Revolution came to her, she was not suprised at the results. The story picked up in the 30s, as Tom and Sybil participated in the General Strike of 1937 against the Collins goverment and later the early Irish Resistance to the new British imposed puppet government (Tom may of been a Socialist with Syndiclaist sympathies but at the end of the day he was a Irishman first and foremost). Despite the very dangerous profession they entered, there story ends on a more happy note than the others with Tom avoiding the massive purges which the Occupation forces enacted in the aftermath of O'Flaherty Affair and the attempted uprising in conjuction with Operation Fortitude and there daughter, Mary Branson perparing to go into adulthood even though there is still a bittersweet element with the foreshadowing for the eventual long Troubles and the Second War for independence