This film is part of Free

Title of error

See Help

Preston and District Roll of Honour, 6th, 7th, 5th Series

A rare surviving WWI memorial film, featuring poignant images of men killed or injured serving in the armed forces.

Roll of Honour film 1915 14 mins Silent

Overview

The 'roll of honour' film is a genre unique to the First World War, consisting of photographs solicited from a community's members of men killed, wounded or currently serving in the war, filmed on a rostrum camera and projected in the local cinema. Even today, the act of watching these rolls is an emotional one as it personalises the toll of war usually only conveyed to us in numbers.

This film, acquired for the BFI National Archive in a single reel, represents the 6th, 7th and 5th series (in that order) and was produced by local filmmaker Will Onda in Preston. Although the film appears simple - a rostrum shot compilation of still photographs - its effects are complex. The progression of individual images has a distressing immediacy. The photographs are largely studio portraits or shots in uniform with a few images of groups at the Front or in transit bases such as Cairo. Information is limited to the soldier's name, rank and sometimes his regiment or special position - a chaplain, a bugler - and a statement if he was killed missing or wounded. There are the occasional brothers pictured together, and some battles are mentioned by name, including Ypres, Festubert and the Dardanelles.

Genres

Roll of Honour film and Non-Fiction

Country

United Kingdom

Language

No Dialogue with English subtitles

Subjects

Watch for free

Funeral at the Front Funeral at the Front

Non-Fiction 1915 1 mins Silent

Sombre and moving World War I newsreel story.

Watch for free

Armistice Armistice

Musical 1929 16 mins

Take your seat for an Armistice concert by military bands playing a medley of songs commonly sung during WWI.

Currently unavailable

Remembrance Day in Dunham Massey Remembrance Day in Dunham Massey

Amateur film 1979 3 mins Silent Location: Dunham Massey Hall

Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Cheshire.

Watch for free

Rotherham Services Procession Rotherham Services Procession

Non-Fiction 1942 9 mins Silent Location: Rotherham

This is an absorbing film of a Remembrance Day service and procession in Rotherham, unusual in being held in wartime, and made more poignant for being so.

Watch for free

Armistice Day Poppies Armistice Day Poppies

Non-Fiction 1928 0 mins Silent

Newsreel tribute to the WWI fallen on the 10th anniversary of the war's end.

Watch for free

Hedd Wyn Hedd Wyn

War 1992 115 mins Location: Trawsfynydd

The stirring story of poet Ellis Evans-Hedd Wyn, the Welsh poet posthumously awarded the Eisteddfod chair at Birkenhead in 1917 after failing to return from 1st World War trenches.