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London schoolchildren wave their flags for the first official Empire Day, as soldiers parade in the playground.
Non-Fiction 1916 2 mins Silent
Flying the flag for patriotism, London schoolchildren offer gifts (of cigars, perhaps?) to wounded soldiers on the first official Empire Day - captured beautifully by Topical Budget's newsreel cameras. The event was held on 24 May, the birthday of Queen Victoria, and was intended to remind children "what it meant to be sons and daughters of such a glorious Empire". It was rebranded as Commonwealth Day in 1958.
Non-Fiction 1916 1 mins Silent Location: London
Colonial recruits from Trinidad meet the Lord Mayor of London during WWI
Non-Fiction 1916 1 mins Silent Location: Hayes Common
Excitable children in their Sunday finery gawp at cameras during the parade for London’s May Queen.
Non-Fiction 1916 1 mins Silent Location: Osterley
Soldiers show off a fine crop of sprouts, grown at the Army Service Corps depot at Osterley Park in Hounslow.
Non-Fiction 1916 2 mins Silent
Was this a lesson in how to shell out on frontline firepower?
Non-Fiction 1916 1 mins Silent
High milk prices during WWI drive mother and child onto the street in protest
Non-Fiction 1901 1 mins Silent Location: London
Capital scenes thanks to Victorian filmmakers
Non-Fiction 1900 2 mins Location: London
Vivid images of Victorian London - but where?
1899 2 mins Silent Location: London
A sports day gives the young residents of the Foundling Hospital a chance to let off steam
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Location: London
Londoners turn out in their thousands to greet the returning Boer War hero after his famous defence of Ladysmith
Non-Fiction 1897 1 mins Silent Location: London
The Band of the First Life Guards approaches Westminster Bridge during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Non-Fiction 1901 1 mins Silent Location: London
Horse-drawn traffic on one of London's busiest thoroughfares
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1933 2 mins
Hand-drawn sound experiment by Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy.
Advert 1974 1 mins Location: Shaftesbury
A classic slice of British advertising history, though that hill's not as Northern as it looks...
Non-Fiction 1901 3 mins Silent Location: Rotherham
Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: Great Moor St, Bolton
Eager youngsters burst out of the gates of a Victorian cotton mill.
Sport 1901 1 mins Silent Location: Henley-on-Thames
It's the first weekend of July 1901, and high society are on the Thames
Advert 1898 1 mins Silent Location: St Pancras
An unusual farewell in this charming early film
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