This film is part of Free

United Service Sports

Army athletes compete for glory on foot and bike.

Non-Fiction 1917 1 mins

Overview

Members of Britain's armed services compete for cycling and sprinting glory at this event held at the Southern Counties Cycling Club in aid of the War Comforts Fund. The inter-regimental team race was won by the Irish Guards. It's hard not to reflect that many of these athletes will before long have been competing for much higher stakes on the battlefields of France or Belgium.

The newsreels usually offered a mixed menu, and if you'd seen this Topical Budget edition back in 1917 you'd have been treated to stories on a Belgian soup kitchen, and a mechanical horse as well as this morale-boosting item.