FROM SOLDIER TO CIVILIAN [Main Title]

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  • Title: FROM SOLDIER TO CIVILIAN [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 457
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: Partly-acted film on the discharge and relocation in civilian work of British soldiers who have served long periods on the Western Front, 1918.
  • Description: Soldiers make an attack from the trenches. One such soldier (in an acted sequence) is handed his discharge notice in the trench by an officer. The men who have been discharged board a ship to cross the English Channel, arriving in Britain. From there they march to the railhead (this is actually still France). A train carrying discharged men arrives at Ripon station, and the men buy food in a nearby café (again, probably a French estaminet). Some travel in wagons and others march to the discharge centre. Each man is registered and issued with blankets. They are interviewed, medically examined and given civilian clothes. This particular group has been allocated to a shipyard as Army Reserve Munition Workers. They are told their duties by an officer and taken by wagon, lorry and train to the shipyard. Two of the men work as rivetters. An incomplete cargo ship is launched from the slipway.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1918
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor) Kinsella and Morgan (Production company)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: British Army, reserve (regiment/service) Army Reserve Munition Workers (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: demobilisation, British (object name) operations, British military - movement: ship (object name) society, British military - sustenance (object name) industry, British - ships (object name) 01/3(4-15).9 (event) 31/3(41) (event) France (geography) Ripon, North Riding, Yorkshire, England, UK (geography)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 370 ft; Running time: 6 mins
  • HD Media:Yes
  • Notes: Title: this is taken from the shotsheet Subtitles: these are all flashframes Summary: the film contains a high proportion of staged or faked material
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 457

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