Queen Victoria's Funeral: Ships Fire a Salute in the Solent

After a procession in Cowes, the funeral enters its second major phase

This film shows the gunsmoke and pageantry as Queen Victoria's body returns to the mainland. After crossing the Solent, the funeral moved by train to London, where it proceeded from Victoria to Paddington, then continued to Windsor. Like the Diamond Jubilee before it, the funeral of Queen Victoria was a huge media event, not least for the early film industry.

As with the jubilee, too, only fragments of film survive. This footage may well have been part of a larger series that tracked the procession from beginning to end. In that context, this sweeping view of ships on the Solent would have made a welcome break from the images of sombre procession that dominated.