Jonathan Reid
The protagonist of Vampyr, Dr. Jonathan Reid is a renowned surgeon and Great War veteran who is turned into a vampire during the 1918 'Spanish flu' pandemic.
Background
An accomplished surgeon, Jonathan Reid drew large crowds to his lectures on organ transplants and blood transfusions. Seeing the Great War as an opportunity to hone his skills and to put them to good use, Reid volunteered his service as a field medic. He fought on the frontlines of France, attaining an officer rank in the process.
In the final months of the war, Reid is sent back home to London to find the city in the grips of a deadly influenza outbreak, the 1918-19 'Spanish flu' pandemic. Sometime after his arrival, he is brutally attacked and wakes up in a mass grave with a thirst for blood.
Vampyr
Unable to understand what's happened to him or how to control his new urges, Reid attacks the first human he finds, only to find that it's his sister who has been searching the streets of London for him. She dies from the bite wound on her neck, and a distraught Reid barely manages to escape from vampire hunters alive with the help of Dr. Edgar Swansea. Swansea is the director of the local Pembroke Hospital and agrees to employ Reid as a physician. Aware that Reid has become a vampire, Swansea sees it as a mutually beneficial agreement: Reid can have a safe place to conduct research into his own condition, and Swansea can study the effects of vampirism himself.
The role of Jonathan Reid is performed by Anthony Howell.
