Day Under Canvas

A beautifully crafted amateur film in gorgeous Kodachrome colour stages a day in the life of a young Boys Brigade troop at an annual camp in the Coquet Valley. The youth organisations Christian and semi-military ethos is played out in the idyllic Northumbrian countryside as the boys eagerly learn the meaning of discipline, resourcefulness, team work and play, marking both ends of the day with a bugle.

Nothing is known about the film-makers of this propaganda film for the Newcastle Boys Brigade C. Boyd as cinematographer and W. Lamb as director but its possible they were members of a local cine club. The first Boys Brigade was founded in Glasgow by William Alexander Smith on 4 October 1883 in the wake of the first Boer War. He introduced a programme of drills, gymnastics and games to a group of bored working-class boys at the Free Church Mission Hall, with a view to advancing a true Christian manliness. The early innovation of boys camping in the wilds was unpopular at first, with one mother quoted as saying Camp! My children have always had a roof over their heads, and as long as I live, always will!