PLUMER DECORATING WOMEN OF FANY AND VAD [Main Title]

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  • Title: PLUMER DECORATING WOMEN OF FANY AND VAD [Main Title]
  • Film Number: IWM 260
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: General Sir Herbert Plumer, commanding Second Army, presents medals for bravery to FANY and VAD officers at Blendecques, Western Front, 3 July 1917.
  • Description: The ceremony takes place in a field, with men of Plumer's staff watching as he pins medals for bravery onto women officers of the Queen Alexandra's First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and the Voluntary Aid Detachment, each in turn. One of the girls, and one of the staff officers, start giggling as the ceremony progresses. A final posed line of the FANY and VAD officers with their medals.
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1914-1918
  • Production Date: 1917
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor) Topical Film Company (Production company) McDowell, J B (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Plumer, Herbert Charles Onslow (person) British Army, First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (regiment/service) Voluntary Aid Detachment (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: ceremonies, British - event-related: investiture (object name) 01/3(4-15).8 (event) Blendecques, Pas-de-Calais, France (geography) (concept) camera (concept)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 150 ft; Running time: 2 mins
  • Notes: Title: this is taken from the shotsheet. Summary: notes on a copy of a shotlist made by Lady Priscilla Norman, a Trustee of the IWM, following a screening in 1923, give the names of "Miss Thompson", "Miss Dickenson" and later of "Dewhurst and Elwes". Further notes say "16 Military Medals given on the same day" and "There were about 5 VADs." (Original in Department of Documents; photocopy in FVA.) See also IWM 268 GENERAL PLUMER DECORATING NURSES for a comparable investiture. Remarks: Plumer, despite his undoubted military ability, had an almost caricature appearance and was generally shy - the reaction of the staff officer and VAD member who start giggling in the middle of the ceremony is quite revealing.
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    IWM 260

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