London's May Queen

London schoolchildren wave their flags for the first official Empire Day, as soldiers parade in the playground.

Colonial recruits from Trinidad meet the Lord Mayor of London during WWI

Soldiers show off a fine crop of sprouts, grown at the Army Service Corps depot at Osterley Park in Hounslow.

Was this a lesson in how to shell out on frontline firepower?

High milk prices during WWI drive mother and child onto the street in protest

Charming film of cherubic children, as London’s new May Queen Bobbie Hastings enjoys a ceremonial crowning at Hayes Common.

Angelic children, dressed in white and garlanded with flowers, are shown at the annual May Queen festival in Hayes Common.

Sweet-faced white-clad children march in procession to muddy Hayes Common, where the latest May Queen is crowned in a popular annual ceremony.

Short film showing a parade featuring the new May Queen of London, anointed in an annual ceremony at Hayes Common.

Flowers and banners are deployed as 13-year-old Nora Rowland from Acton is crowned London’s newest May Queen for 1927.

A grand parade of gaily dressed children marches through Hayes on the way to crown the latest May Queen.

A new luxury express is put through its paces. This film looks over the shoulders of the select band of craftsmen, engineers and operators, whose combined skills try to ensure that a train journey is a delightful experience.

British Transport Films record the varied daily lives of their neighbours as seen from the high roof of their building in London’s Marylebone.

Illustrating the efficiency of express freight trains, and how they link manufacturers with their customers at the other end of Britain.

Examining a day in the life of what was then the busiest railway system in the world – British Railways.

The Stationmaster at York guides us through a typical day, from dawn to dusk.

A 1957 film examining the future for British Railways, and some of the opportunities provided by a new modernisation plan.